72 



FEBRUARY. 



By reference to the table of mean temperature and amount of rain, at the 

 end of this report, it will be seen that the month of February has been warm 

 and dry throughout the country generally, the temperature being consider- 

 ably above the average, and the amount of rain hardly more than half the 

 average quantity. The winter, also, taken as a whole, nowithstanding some 

 severe periods of cold, was warm and dry. At Boston the mean temperature 

 of February was three and two-thirds degrees above the average of forty years. 



A very low temperature prevailed about the middle of February through- 

 out the United States, and extended beyond the Atlantic coast. The follow- 

 ing table gives the readings of the thermometer at 7 a. m., 2 p. m., and 9 

 p. m. on each day from the 15th to the 20th, inclusive, at all the stations from 

 which registers have been received. From Bermuda, (in the Bermuda 

 Royal Gazette,) we have records of the temperature at noon and the daily 

 mean. By these it appears that this cold was as distinctly marked in 

 that island as on the continent, the mean temperature of the first week be- 

 ing 63.71°, of the second week 65.14°, of the third week, (from the 15th to 

 the 21st, inclusive,) 57.71°, and of the fourth week 62.71''. The coldest day 

 of the winter was the 21st February, mean temperature 54°, unless a colder 

 day occurred in the first week of January, of which we are not informed, as 

 the record for that week has not been received. The mean temperature was 

 not below 61° on any day in February except during the third week. 



At Boston the self-registering thermometer indicated a temperature of 

 3^ below zero in the night of the 17th ; on the 18th, at 6 a. m., it stood at 

 2|° below ; at half past 8, zero ; and at 10 a. m., 5° above. At Cambridge 

 Observatory the thermometer in the course of the night of the 17th was at 

 — 7°; at sunrise of the 18th, — 5°, Previous to the 17th the thermometer at 

 Boston had not fallen this winter lower than 5° above zero, which was on 

 the 7th of January. The meteorological correspondent of the Boston Trav- 

 eller says the temperature of — 3° has not been experienced in Boston so late 

 in the winter since 1837, twenty-seven years ago, and within the last forty 

 years it has fallen below zero after the middle of February on only four days 

 at sunrise, the last time eighteen j'ears since, as follows: 1833, March 3, — 5°; 

 1836, February 19, —31°; 1837, February 18,— 3°; 1846, February 27, —1°. 



The cold in the middle of February was preceded, on the 15th or 16th, by 

 a snow-storm which was not of great depth generally. In a few places it 

 fell eight to twelve inches, and at Halifax, Nova Scotia, the telegraph re- 

 ported it eighteen inches. 



