11 



slightly over 80°. The lowest was on the 21st or 30th, and 

 was very near the freezing point of water. Thus, while the 

 monthly range was not large, the daily ranges were very 

 strong and generally rapid. While at Taunton light frosts 

 are reported on twelve days and killing frosts on three, at 

 Fitchburg no frost had occurred at the end of the month. 

 Over the greater part of the State the damage by frosts 

 was very slight. In this respect the season has been unusu- 

 ally favorable, both during the late spring and the early fall. 

 At New Bedford the rainfall was over three inches ; two 

 inches and over fell in the south-eastern part of the State 

 and in the extreme west, while from one to two inches only 

 was registered in all the central districts. Thunder-storms 

 were few, but that of the 26th was very severe and did con- 

 siderable damage. The correspondent from Taunton reports 

 that a sudden severe thunder-storm on that morning caused 

 an alarm of fire, and did considerable damage. Over thirty 

 telephones were damaged, and some six or eight buildings 

 struck by lightning, some being badly damaged by fire. No 

 people were seriously injured, although several narrow 

 escapes happened. The clouds were reported as a dark 

 bluish-black, with a rolling motion at the upper edge. 

 One gentleman thought the storm was moving at the rate 

 of a mile a minute. 



October Weather. 



The following is compiled from the records at Boston for 

 twenty-one years. The mean temperature is 52° ; the 

 warmest October was in 1879, with an average of 56°, and 

 the coldest that of 1883, with an average of 47°. The 

 highest temperature during any October was 90° on the 1st 

 in 1881, and the lowest was 25° on the 26th in 1879. 



The average precipitation for the month is 4.12 inches, 

 and the average number of rainy days ten. The greatest 

 monthly precipitation was 8.84 in 1877, and the least 0.91 

 in 1879. The greatest amount of precipitation recorded in 

 any twenty-four consecutive hours was 4.22 inches, on the 

 11th and 12th, in 1871. The prevailing wind is from the west, 

 and the highest velocity fifty-four miles an hour from the 

 north-east ou the 19th in 1890. 



