NATURE 



\_NoV. 22, li 



other more distant ranges have shared this fall, if it is 

 as extensive as it is apparently heavy on the visible 

 ranges, and if the views which the experience o'^ recent 

 years seems to justify, viz. that an unusual extent and 

 thickness of snow on the Himalaya is productive of dry 

 north-west and west winds in North- Western India, are 

 valid, we must be prepared for a long spell of dry weather 

 and a retarded rainfall in the Upper Provinces. The 

 present season will serve as a test of the validity of the 

 above view. 



(Signed) " Henry F. Blanford, 



Meteorological Reporter to the 

 Government of India 

 "Simla, May 31, 18S3" 



Information was subsequently received to the effect 

 that the heavy snow of the winter months as well as that 

 which fell at the end of May was restricted to the outer 

 range. In the interior of Lalwul and Spiti and in the 

 Pangi valley the snowfall was very deficient. Neverthe- 

 less the May fall on the outer range seems to have sufficed 

 to produce the effect predicted. 



Extracts from a Memorandum on the Chief Weather 

 Characteristics of tlie Month of June, 1883, in India, 

 in the " Gazette of India" 



" In Bengal, after some weeks of close cloudy weather, 

 with occasional showers, the monsoon rains were ushered 

 in on June 13, with a little cyclonic storm, formed appa- 

 rently on the coast of the Sunderbuns. F'roni the coast 

 on the three following days this storm passed inland, on 

 a north-west course, bringing heavy rain in its track, as 

 far west as Behar, and a moderate fall up to Allahabad ; 

 .beyond which, for a time, the rains did not advance. . . . 

 At Bombay it blew strongly on the nth, 12th, and 13th, 

 but not from the monsoon quarter ; and afterwards the 

 wind fell light, and so continued till the 24th, when the 

 monsoon set in steadily. But the rainfall has been light 

 throughout the month, and, at its close, was six inches 

 short of the normal average. On the 26th or 27th a 

 second cyclone was formed at the head of the Bay of 

 Bengal, causing heavy rain around the coasts, and espe- 

 cially those of Orissa and Ganjani ; then, travelling west- 

 ward, the centre reached Cuttack on June 30 ; Seoni on 

 July I ; Indore on the 2nd ; and lay between Kurrachee 

 and Rajkot on the 3rd. It caused very heavy rain in 

 Gujerat, flooding the rivers, and interrupting railway com- 

 munication between Bombay and Baroda. 



" In the North-Western Provinces, with the exception 

 already mentioned, the rains did not set in before the 

 26th, but throughout the month the wind was, in general, 

 easterly, and occasional thunderstorms occurred. In the 

 Punjab also, the first rain fell between the 26th and 29th, 

 but in the eastern half of the province the prevailing high 

 temperature was mitigated by an occasional dust- 

 storm. . . . 



" In Lower Bengal rain of importance fell on twenty- 

 two days. The total fall of the month was five inches in 

 excess. . . . 



" In Rajputana, Sind,&c., the number of days on which 

 rain fell was only four, and the average total was less by 

 three-quarters of an inch than even the small amount 

 which generally falls in this region in the month of 

 June. . . . 



" From the above it appears that, over a large tract of 

 country, the monsoon so far has been weak. On May 28 

 it was reported to have burst at Cochin ; and between 

 that date and June 5 it appears to have spread along that 

 coast as far north as Goa. In Bombay itself the weather 

 has been showery, but there have been no very heavy 

 falls of rain. On the Bengal side, on the contrary, the 

 south and south-west winds have brought up even more 

 than the normal amount of rain, and the weather at the 

 head of the Bay has been somewhat exceptionally rough 



In Northern India the monsoon current has been much 

 delayed, and in parts of the .Vorth-Western Provinces and 

 the Punjab contmuous rain has hardly yet set in. 

 (Signed) " W. L. Dallas, 



Assistant Meteorological Reporter 

 to the Government of India" 



Extracts from a Memorandum on the Chief Weather 

 C/iai-acteristics of Jiity, 1883, in India, in tlic '■''Gazette 

 of India " 



" Except in the North-Western and at a few Central 

 stations, the rainfall of the month shows on the whole 

 comparatively little departure from the average. 



"After the disappearance of the storm noticed in the 

 June summary, which passed from the Bay of Bengal 

 across India, &c., . . . there occurred a general rise of the 

 barometer, a corresponding decrease in the humidity of 

 the atmosphere, and a cessation of the rainfall, over a 

 large tract of country for two or three days. On the 5th 

 or 6th, however, rain recommenced generally and con- 

 tinued for some time. In the eastern half of the North- 

 Western Provinces, Assam, Bengal, Burmah, and the south 

 of the peninsula, it fell more or less on every day, till the 

 close of the month, but over Western and North-Western 

 India the fall ceased about the 19th, and from that date 

 till the end of the month a decided break in the rains 

 occurred, and fine weather set in. 



" cm the plains of the Punjab there were only eleven 

 wet days ; the break in the rains, which commenced on 

 the 19th, being very decided in this province. In conse- 

 quence the amount of rain for the month, and, except in 

 the Indus valley, the total since June i, was several inches 

 below the average. . . . 



" The weather in the western half of the North-Western 

 Provinces »-as similar to that experienced in the Punjab, 

 but in the eastern half it was wetter, the number of rainy 

 days being nineteen. In the Meerut division five inches 

 less than the average amount fell during the month ; while 

 at Lucknow eight inches and at Allahabad one and a half 

 inches more than the average was registered. . . . 



" In Lower Bengal and parts of Behar the rainfall was 

 several inches above the July average ; while in Purneah, 

 Patna, and Orissa it was deficient. The average number 

 of wet dajs was twenty-six, and no break in the rains of 

 any consequence occurred within these provinces. . . . 



'' In R.ajputana the rainfall was about the average 

 amount, and oc^curred on thirteen days ; scarcely any fell 

 after the 17th. . . . 



(Signed) " W. L. Dallas, 



Assistant Meteorological Reporter 

 to the Government of India " 



Extract fro/n a Memorandian of the Chief Weather 

 Ciiaracteristics of August, 1883, in the " Gazette of 

 India " 



" The month just elapsed was one of very deficient 

 rainfall throughout India, except in the provinces of 

 Madras, Berar, and Assam. The break in the rains, 

 which during the latter half of July was very general in 

 North-Western and parts of Central India, became even 

 more pronounced throughout that region during the first 

 three weeks of the month under review ; and extended, 

 though in a modified degree, to Behar and a large part of 

 Bombay. The drought was apparently at its height, both 

 as regards extent and intensity, during the second week 

 in August. . . . On the 19th, however, a change com- 

 menced. The air became slowly damper over the Central 

 and North-Western Provinces, and the sky more cloudy; 

 and very gradually these changes spread, till at the close 

 of the month rain had extended to the Punjab, Rajputana, 

 and Gujerat ; in Rajputana and a large part of the Punjab 

 and the North-Western Provinces it was only on the last 



