64 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF NOTTINGtlAM AND DISTRICT 



Thunder 



In the Nottingham district as with the Midlands in general, thunder 

 occurs chiefly durmg the summer months. It is commonly associated 

 with small secondary depressions which develop locally during the after- 

 noon or early evening. Records kept by Mr. A. B. Tinn show the 

 average dates of the incidence of the first and last summer thunder in 

 Nottingham to be 2nd April and 26th September respectively. Two 

 aspects of thunderstorm occurrence in our region provide scope for 

 further enquiry. In the first place E. G. Bilham has pointed out that 

 Belvoir Castle experiences a greater frequency of thunder than any other 

 station in Britain for which data are available, and it appears likely, 

 therefore, that this district of the East Midlands may be the scene of 

 maximum thunder activity for the whole country. Then also attention 

 should be drawn to the behaviour of thunderstorms in relation to their 

 local distribution. No records are yet available but repeated observations 

 point to a tendency for such storms to occur in the neighbourhood of the 

 Trent valley and even to move some distance along it. Rarely does a 

 thunderstorm break over the city itself. 



Fog 



Though mainly due to cloudiness, the low average figures of sunshine 

 duration for the months November, December and January are partly to 

 be explained by the occurrence of mist and fog. Cold mists persisting 

 for several days frequently give a dreary aspect to the weather throughout 

 the Nottingham region at this time of the year. Dense fog is an un- 

 pleasant and sometimes dangerous phenomenon to which the locahty ap- 

 pears especially hable. The circumstances of such a visitation vary from a 

 widespread and impenetrable blanket causing serious dislocation of traffic 

 and a toll of accidents, to a number of scattered patches grotesquely 

 locaUsed in the hollows or in the vicinity of the river. Industrial smoke 

 and the existence of cold still air over the damp flats of the Trent valley 

 are undoubtedly among the leading factors in the formation of these 

 fogs. On the occasions of widespread dense fog, however, high ground 

 and lowlying land suffer alike. 



Conclusion 



An Enghsh county such as Nottinghamshire is too small a territory in 

 which to find great differences of cHmatic conditions, and as we have 

 seen, small local differences occur mainly as the result of variations in 

 altitude and aspect. As far as human beings are concerned the conditions 

 are healthy though by no means genial and tend to be somewhat rigorous 

 in winter. In general, the conditions favour agriculture and good grain 

 crops characterise the farming over much of the county. Occasional 

 extremes in precipitation, however, seriously affect the yield of crops on 

 the two main types of land. Drought soon causes difficulty on the light 

 sandy soils of central Nottinghamshire and results in low yields of wheat 

 and barley, poor crops of roots, and even failure in the case of potatoes. 

 On the other hand, prolonged rains are troublesome to the heavy clay 

 lands of the eastern and southern parts of the county. Keen winds and 

 late cold spells in spring sometimes retard the growth of crops especially 



