western part of the State it did not rise above 4" to IP be- 

 low zero. At Provincetown tiie temperature fell to 1" below 

 zero, the lowest ever recorded there by the present observer. 

 The monthly and daily ranges of temperature were very 

 great, and the inversions of temperature — warmer on the 

 hills than in the valleys — were noted on numerous occasions. 

 A marked example of the influence of the wind on the tem- 

 perature was given on the 17th and 18th at Concord. The 

 wind had been westerly, and on the morning of the 17th the 

 temperature was 20° below zero. Under the influence of an 

 advancing cyclone over the lakes the wind changed to south- 

 erly, and as the storm passed to the north of New England 

 the temperature rose without a fall through the day and night 

 of the 17tli to 51° above zero at about two p.m. on the 18th, 

 — a rise of 71° within thirty-six hours. 



Fortunately the ground was generally well covered w^ith 

 snow during the extreme cold weather so nothing in the 

 ground suffered. Peaches, however, standing above the 

 snow could not be protected, and from sixt}^ per cent to 

 seventy-five per cent of the buds were killed. Other fruit 

 was not injured. 



March, 1894. 



March was very warm and very dry. The excess in tem- 

 perature averaged over 8° a da3Mit Boston, Cambridge, Som- 

 erset, Fitchburg and Springfield. At Boston the mean tem- 

 perature for the mouth, the mean of the three consecutive 

 warmest days and the mean for the warmest day was higher 

 than ever before recorded for March in the history of the 

 Weather Bureau ; higher maximum temperatures occurred 

 on March 10, 1878, and on March 5, 1880. At New Bed- 

 ford, which has a complete record since 1813, the mean for 

 the month was higher on the following years only: 1825, 

 1831, 1842, 1859, 1865, 1871 and 1878. At a few stations 

 along the coast the highest temperature was on the 6th, but 

 generally it was on the 19th, and varied from 60° to 74°. 

 The coldest spell was on the 27th and 28th, when the tem- 

 perature fell from 8° to 20° below freezing. This cold wave 

 did great damage to crops and fruit in the Central and South- 

 ern States, but New England escaped with no serious injury. 

 Reports from well known and reliable fruit growers showed 



