NORWICH IN ITS REGIONAL SETTING 21 
it still preserves to a certain degree an isolation which has enabled the 
countryside to retain the greater part of its charm and scenery. This 
very isolation, too, has enhanced the importance of Norwich as the county 
centre for administration, banking and commerce, as will appear in 
following chapters. Roads radiate from it in all directions like the spokes 
of a wheel, and around it villages are rapidly assuming the réle of suburbs, 
while the rapid growth of new housing estates on the margin of the pre- 
war city marks another epoch in the expansion of the city itself. 
III. 
-THE CLIMATE OF EAST ANGLIA 
BY 
JOHN H. WILLIS. 
As the drive and energy of a people can now be shown largely dependent 
on their climate, the weather variations we experience become matters 
of vital concern. ‘That none surpass from this standpoint, the variations 
experienced in the regions of the British Isles may be evidenced by the 
Ellsworth Huntington records in Climate and Civilization. Yet even 
among the variations prevailing in England, the climate of East Anglia 
may claim to rank high. As the changes swing from high summer to 
_ winter, its unusual position closely safeguards it from hurtful extremes. 
_ For as the drift of weather and cyclonic systems over England is mainly 
_ from the west, the moist free-roving winds from the Atlantic lose to the 
_ western hills much of their violence and rains. Hence not only is East 
_ Anglia’s moisture relatively slight, amounting in the area of its capital 
to a depth of but little over 2 ft. to 26 in. of rain in a year, but its 
relatively clear skies yield East Anglia a high sunshine average, both in 
duration and intensity. The average, indeed, of 1,563 hours a year for 
its capital is among the highest for all inland cities in England ; while 
thanks to the dryness of its air its intensity also ranks high, and the holiday 
sea and sun bather may feel on its coast, more consciously than elsewhere, 
the friendly kiss of the sun. 
Yet thanks to its dryness, the warmth that sweeps over it in summer is 
‘stimulating rather than oppressive. Thanks also to the peculiar con- 
figuration of the region, a tendency to excessive and enervating heat is 
‘checked, almost as it were by thermostatic control. For at periods when 
the heat over England tends to rise to oppressive levels, the vast heated 
currents of air ascending above it draw over the crescent rim of East 
‘Anglia’s low expanse a flood of cool air from the sea ; even as far inland 
. 
