THE CLIMATE OF LEICESTERSHIRE 41 
Unfortunately the county has never been very well served in regard to 
climatological observations, and we are obliged to rely, except in respect 
to rainfall, very largely on the records from Belvoir Castle, which is very 
near to the north-eastern boundary of the county. In recent years we 
have records from Lutterworth, kept by Mr. M. W. Binns, whose kindness 
in supplying data I am glad to acknowledge. At the moment of preparing 
these notes I have also learnt of a long record kept at Woodhouse Eaves, 
near Loughborough, by Colonel Dashwood, but it has not been found 
possible to carry out the work of summarising his observations in time 
for inclusion in this article. 
The station at Belvoir Castle, maintained by the Duke of Rutland, K.G., 
began observation of rainfall in 1855, of temperature in 1896, and of 
sunshine in 1906. Averages of these elements, weighted to the standard 
period, 1881-1915, are printed in the Book of Normals, Section I. In 
the case of temperature (maximum and minimum and mean), averages 
for the period 1901 to 1930 have recently been computed, and I am 
enabled to include these by permission of the Director of the Meteoro- 
logical Office. The observations at Lutterworth refer to the period 1921 
to 1932. 
RAINFALL. 
The mean annual rainfall of Leicestershire varies from about 23 in. 
near South Wigston to nearly 29 in. on the high land in the Charnwood 
Forest area. Only a small portion of the county has an annual fall 
exceeding 27:5 in. Table I shows the mean monthly and annual 
totals (referred to the epoch 1881-1915) at three stations, from which 
long records are available. It will be seen that October and August are 
the wettest months, April and February the driest. In Table II the 
rainfall at Belvoir Castle is dealt with in greater detail. The average 
annual number of days of rain (o-o1 in. or more) is distinctly higher than 
at other places, such as Camden Square, London (163), Shrewsbury (166), 
Oxford (168), Hull (185), Wakefield (165), and Portland Bill (163), where 
the rainfall is about the same as at Belvoir Castle. Rain occurs on about 
two days out of three in October, November and December, and is least 
frequent in June, when days without rain outnumber days with rain in 
the ratio of three to two. The wettest months of any name were July 
1880, and July 1932, in each of which the fall was 6-59 in., or 271 per 
cent. of the normal July total. Reckoned as a percentage of the normal 
for the month, the rainfall of April 1920 (329 per cent. of the normal) 
occupies first place. The driest months were February 1891, and March 
1929, in each of which the fall was only 0-07 in. The highest yearly 
total, 35-73 in., or 142 per cent. of the normal, occurred in 1882, and 
the lowest, 16-05 in., or 64 per cent. of the normal, in 1921. From 
data given by Dr. J. Glasspoole,! it appears that the standard deviation of 
annual rainfall over Leicestershire is rather more than 18 per cent. of 
the annual total. The heaviest rainfall in a day (24 hours to g h.) occurred 
1 ‘The relation between annual rainfall over Europe and that at Oxford 
and at Glenquoich,’ British Rainfall, 1925, pp. 254-269. 
