26 RURAL MICHIGAN 



for July is some 3.5 inches and well distributed.^ 

 At Marquette, for example, the records of the local 

 station of the Weather Bureau indicate that ten 

 days in May, twelve days in June, twelve days in 

 July, August and September and fourteen days in 

 October, normally have precipitation of one one- 

 hundredth of an inch or more. At Lansing, simi- 

 larly, the number of days with this amount of 

 precipitation is twelve in May, eleven in June, ten 

 in July, August and September and eleven in Oc- 

 tober. Excessively copious downpours are rare. The 

 typical "rainy day,'" of moderate protracted pre- 

 cipitation, is a familiar feature of the Michigan 

 climate, whether northern or southern. Yet thun- 

 der-storms, occasionally of some violence, occur fre 

 quently in summer, taking their toll of barns and 

 other possessions of the Michigan farmer. The 

 State's well-distributed precipitation not only pro- 

 motes the growth of vegetation, it also maintains 

 stream-flow and lake levels at a fairly uniform 

 stage — a fact of nnich importance in the creation 

 of power and of navigation. 



Hail-storms are both local and irregular in their 

 distribution, but, according to Seeley, are less severe 

 and less frequent near the Great Lakes. Hail- 

 storm charts prepared by the United States Weather 

 Bureau indicate that in 1918, three light and four 

 severe hail-storms occurred in the Upper Peninsula; 

 and eight light and seven severe hail-storms in the 

 Lower Peninsula. In 1919, heavy hail-storms oc- 



"^Climatology of the U. S.," 556. 



