392 



THE CLIMATE OF IRELAND, AND 



in Ireland is small, the mean difference between the greatest 

 temperature of the day, and the least temperature of the night, 

 being only 117. The range is greater inland than on the coast, 

 the mean range of the inland stations being 13'l, and that of 

 the coast stations 10'3. Among the places of observation, it is 

 greatest at Portarlington, and least at Cahirciveen at the south- 

 western extremity of Ireland. 



Having spoken of the temperature of the air, I must now say 

 a few words of its movement and, first, of the direction of that 

 movement. 



During the period of the simultaneous observations already 

 referred to, the wind blew, on the average of the entire year, most 

 frequently from S.W. and W., and least frequently from N.E. 

 and E. Thus, taking the mean of all the stations, the number of 

 times in which the wind blew from the N.E. is only 7 per cent, of 

 the whole, while the number of S.W. winds is 20 per cent. The 

 ratio of the numbers is greater in winter than in summer. The 

 following Table gives the number of times out of 1000, in which 

 the wind blew from each of the eight principal points of the 

 compass, for the whole island. 



The velocity of the wind varies from to 70 feet per second, 

 and upwards this last being the speed corresponding to a storm. 

 If we confine our attention for the present to winds whose average 

 velocity is not less than 35 feet per second, which is the velocity 

 of a strong breeze, we find that the high winds are much more 

 frequent on the western than on the eastern coast, the numbers 

 denoting their relative frequency being, on the average of the 



