l60 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



Some observers are enthusiastic enough to take their 

 return both at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.. but the majority, of 

 which I form one, are content to take it every morning 

 for the previous 24 hours. 



I have, however, made a compromise by dechning to 

 label a fine day as a day with rain, when the gauge showed 

 a fall during the night, and have roughly used a distin- 

 guishing mark for such cases, from which I conclude that 

 from 30 to 40, or even more, days from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

 may be deducted as rainless, thus showing that on the 

 average 230 days out of the 365, or nearly two days out 

 of everv three, may be expected to be absolutely without 

 any fall of rain to interfere with either business or pleasure. 



The relation of the number of days rain to the total 

 also presents noticeable features. 



In the driest year 166 days give 1919, or il for each 

 day of 24 hours ; while the wettest year, with 198 days, 

 shows '18 for each day; the mean figures are 172 days 

 with "16 for each day, so that the more days rain there are 

 the more rain you get on each day, and the less days the 

 less rain each day. 



It is obvious that a rainfall of 80 or 90 inches must 

 involve much heavier falls than we ever experience in this 

 county, or there would be no fine days at all, and accord- 

 ingly at Fort William, the station at the base of Ben 

 Nevis, 78*81 falls on 222 days, showing an average for 

 each day of over '35, while an east coast station, Lincoln, 

 gives 2273 on 170 days, or '13 per diem. 



The observer who lives in a town does so under great 

 disadvantages in respect to rainfall. He can, on a rainy 

 day see only a wet pavement and roof, and a glimpse of 

 open sky, with perhaps a weather cock stuck in the wrong 

 direction, and one rain is very Hke another ; he cannot 

 enjoy or take any interest in a rainfall, or see where it 

 comes from, or goes to. Now on a hill station how 



