TOunfret anfr Xtgbtntng 123 



often enough to call the event anything but an un- 

 usual one. 



" When lightning occurs in winter it is either in the 

 south-west quadrant of an area of low pressure, or 

 along the line separating vaguely the boundaries of a 

 diffused ' low ' moving eastward, and an incoming 

 ' high ' from the Pacific. In my twenty -two years' 

 residence here I have noted about 65 days on which 

 lightning and thunder have occurred, though the 

 number would easily be doubted 10 or 12 miles to the 

 north or east. I do not now recall a single storm in 

 which there were as many as 25 peals of thunder ; and 

 for the most of them 12 would be the average maximum. 

 The occasional thunder showers that visit the lands 

 near the coast in summer are northern extensions of 

 Mexican storms, locally known as * Sonoras.' Near 

 the Mexican line they are sometimes of moderate 

 severity, but never so far north as Los Angeles. The 

 last one of any considerable and general precipitation 

 occurred August 9th, 1908. The rainfall at Los 

 Angeles was -08 inch, and at San Diego 0-61 inch. I 

 may remark that this was the last measurable rainfall 

 recorded in Los Angeles in the month of August. 

 March shows the maximum number of thunder-days 

 for a given period. In that from 1901 to 1910 (ten 

 years) there were seven days with lightning and 

 thunder in March." 



