50 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



REPORT OF THE METEOROLOGIST. 



LEONARD METCALF. 



During the past year the usual meteorological observations 

 have been continued, and the results have been compiled with 

 those of previous years. A special bulletin will be published 

 with the annual summary of observations for the year 1896, 

 in January, 1897, giving the mean annual and the maximum 

 and minimum records for this station for the past eight years, 

 i.e., since the equipment of our observatory. 



The advisability of making a change in the time and fre- 

 quency of taking the observations, from tri-daily readings 

 at 7 A.M., 2 P.M. and 9 r.M., to bi-daily readings at 8 a.m. 

 and 8 p.m., to conform with the present method of the U, S. 

 Weather Bureau, was considered ; but, after discussing the 

 subject thoroughly with the department at Boston and at 

 Washington, it was deemed unwise to make the change, and 

 the observations have therefore been taken three times a day, 

 as heretofore. 



After a careful study of the thermometer records of the 

 tower shelter, it was found that the local conditions of ex- 

 posure were such as to seriously affect the accuracy of the 

 temperature readings, and the Draper thermograph, by which 

 the mean daily air temperature at the tower was found, was 

 removed to the ground shelter, where its readings are checked 

 and corrected three times a day by a standard mercury ther- 

 mometer and by the maximum and minimum thermometers 

 previously kept there. While record is still kept of the maxi- 

 mum and minimum air temperatures in the tower shelter, it 

 is no longer published. The wet and dry bull) thermometers 

 were also removed to the ground shelter, and the wet-bulb 

 reading or "sensible temperature" of the air is now pub- 

 lished, as well as the dry -bulb reading. This "sensible 



