Liberia <^ 



at once the coldest and the hottest. These are December, 

 January, and February. February is the coolest and the driest 

 month in the year. At this time in the interior or twenty to 

 fifty miles from the coast, the thermometer may descend at 

 night and early morning as low as 54° Fahr. But in the 

 middle of the day, on the other hand, it may easily reach 100° 

 in the shade. From these extremes the temperature during the 

 other months of the year gradually diminishes, till about 75° may 

 very well be the scarcely varying temperature of night and day. 



In the height of the rainy season — August — there may 

 be a distinct lull in the rainfall, though the sky is constantly 

 covered with clouds. At this time the temperature, even at 

 such an equatorial place as Cape Palmas (little more than four 

 degrees north of the Equator), may scarcely exceed 69° in the 

 daytime, and perhaps fall to 6^'^ at night, so that the middle 

 of the rainy season is usually regarded by the Liberians as 

 the coolest time of year, though actually the lowest temperatures 

 (as well as the highest) are recorded in the three dry months 

 between December and March. 



The accompanying tables will illustrate the fluctuations of 

 temperature in the various months of the year. The highest 

 shade temperatures as yet actually recorded in Liberia were 

 105° on December ist, 1904, on January 31st and on February 

 20th, 1905, at Sikombe Station, in the Sikon country to the 

 north of Sino. This seems to be an exceptionally hot place 

 for the'coast-lands of Liberia. During the months of December, 

 January, and February temperatures of 100° and 101° Fahr. 

 were frequently registered at noon, while the night temperature 

 was generally 80° to 83°. At Putu station, about the same 

 distance from the coast, and some thirty miles to the east (both 

 stations being only a few hundred feet above sea level), the 

 temperatures during the dry season were much milder. The 



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