CLIMATE OF THE FYLDE 37 



is purely a product of convectional causes and is confined to the summer 

 half-year when the air over the land is warmer than over the sea. Dry 

 summers with anticyclonic weather such as 1911 and 1921 are particularly 

 favourable to its development. The daily anemometer charts for these two 

 years at Blackpool show that it was most frequent in May, June, July and 

 September and less frequent in August. During the six months April- 

 September, inclusive, the sea breeze was developed on 21 per cent, of the 

 possible occasions. These years were exceptional, but this circulation is an 

 important element in the seaside climate. 



In its more general features the climate of the Fylde is uniform, but there 

 are some interesting differences both between the sands and the clays and 

 between the several seaside resorts. The differences in soil temperature 

 between the sands and clays are significant. The sand (at St. Annes) is as 

 much as 2°F. colder in winter than the clay (at Blackpool), but warms up 

 more quickly in the spring, and is up to 4°F. warmer in the summer. The 

 differences are more pronounced at 4 feet than at 1 foot below the surface. 

 They are of considerable agricultural importance and help to explain why 

 there is market-gardening at Marton on the warmer sandy soils. The differences 

 between the seaside resorts are easily perceived, but more difficult to under- 

 stand. Blackpool is described as having a more bracing climate than St. 

 Annes." The mean temperature of St. Annes, however, is practically identical 

 with that of Blackpool, except in winter, when it is slightly lower. The mean 

 maximum monthly temperatures are a little lower at St. Annes, but the mean 

 minimum are slightly higher, except in the mid-winter months. It is these 

 somewhat higher minimum temperatures which explain the common 

 impression that St. Annes is the warmer of the two. The only general inference 

 that can be drawn from the humidity tables is that St. Annes has a somewhat 

 lower humidity, except in spring, due no doubt to its porous, sandy soil and 

 lower rainfall. The record at St. Annes is too short to allow of an accurate 

 statement, but, on the evidence of the 1 1 years available, St. Annes rainfall 

 is about 7 per cent, below that of Blackpool. St. Annes has thus a slightly 

 drier and less humid climate, with rather higher minimum temperatures. 

 Differences of elevation and exposure as well as of soil account for the contrast. 

 St. Annes stands on a low-lying sand-dune coast. Blackpool is mainly built 

 on low cliffs, which implies freer movement of air and is one of the causes of 

 its more ' bracing ' character. Blackpool and St. Annes have been selected 

 as examples of the differences which obtain, as they have the longest series of 

 records available. 



8 The data available for St. Annes covers only an 1 1-year period (1924-34), so that conclusions 

 based on them can only be tentative. For a discussion of the difficulties involved in interpreting 

 the differences between ' bracing ' and ' relaxing ' climates see papers by W. F. Tyler and E. Gold 

 in Quarterly Journal, Roy. Met. Soc., July, 1935. 



