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METEOROLOGICAL NOTES FOR 1875. 



The publication of the Report of the Institution, together with the Meteor- 

 ological Tables for 1875, in the early weeks of this year, made it impracticable 

 to append to them any fair comparison of the results of the observations made 

 at the different Cornish stations, either with each other or with those from other 

 parts of the country. JSTow, there is some risk that delay may have deprived the 

 inquiry of much of its interest ; but it may nevertheless be desirable to preserve 

 in our pages a continuous record of this class of natural facts, and I will notice 

 the particular features of each month as in regard to former years. 



January was very mild and very wet everywhere ; at Tiuro the freezing 

 point (32o) was only once reached ; the mean temperature of the month was 48'8 ; 

 the average of 16 years being 43'9 ; the mean of the maxima (52'3) being 3'5, 

 and that of the minima (45'4), 63 above the average. At Penzance, the 

 lowest tempex'atiire was 37", and the mean of the minima 4627. At Eodmin, 

 the mean temperature of the month was 47'4, the average being 43o. Even at 

 Altarnun, 28^ was the minimum on the stand ; and on the same day, the 22nd, 

 which was the only cold day at all the stations, the grass temperature was 18". 

 The snow which remained from December had disappeared from our highlands 

 on the 4th and 5th. In the neighbourhood of London the same mildness pre- 

 vailed. Mr. Glaisher remarks that "the severe cold period which set in on November 

 21st, 1874, and continued to 1st January, 1875, was followed by a very unusually 

 warm period, beginning on 2nd January and ending on 30th ; the mean daily 

 temperature of these 29 days was 6fo in excess of the average of 60 years. On 

 several days this excess was as large as lOo, llo, and 12n, and the direction of the 

 wind was mostly S.W., or S.S.W , or W.S.W. On the only day, the 22nd, that 

 the wind was from N.E. or N.W., the mean temperature was 25-,, below its 

 average."* Turning to wetness, the rainfall at Truro was 7'98 inches, the average 

 being 5"24, and the rainy days were 29 instead of 21'3. At Penzance, the excess 

 was still larger, being as 9'54 to 5 85. The rain at the Scilly Islands (6'97) was, 

 as usual, much less than at Penzance, but not, as commonly, less than at Helston, 

 where it was 6'94 inches ; at Land's End it was 6'54. At Bodmin, the fall 

 was 10'52, and iit Altarnun 12'75, the averages for January being respectively 

 6'03 and 8'78. Mr. Tripp says of the latter station " it was the wettest month on 

 record here." In further evidence of the extreme dampness of the month, the 

 wet bulb therm, was on the average only 1'5 below the dry, the mean humidity 

 of the atmosphere was 93 (saturation being 100) ; and of 2 daily observations, the 

 sun was overclouded 51 times, and only 11 times visible. f 



' It is worth noting that at a place so near us as Taunton the minimum was as low as U*. 

 t The thunderstorm on the 24th lasted at intervals from 1 p.m. till midnight, and was 

 experienced throughout the whole county. 



