250 C. Little — Himalayan summer storms. [No. 4, 



the depression moved westward. The slight to moderate deficiency of 

 pressure in the United Provinces was not, as was quite natural under 

 the circumstances, recognised as the commencement of the disturbance 

 which was to cause the first heavy rain of the season in the United Pro- 

 vinces, or, as the disturbance developed, the floods in Kashmir. I note 

 these matters to show how unsuspected the rainfall was, and that forms 

 the strongest argument, in my opinion, in favour of the disturbance not 

 being connected directly with the weather changes in progress at that 

 time over India. 



There only remains to point out a few of the more important features 

 of the weather of the past few months as regards storms in the Bay of 

 Bengal and monsoon conditions in Northern India. Throughout the 

 hot season the northerly element in tbe upper wind was conspicuously 

 absent in Lower Bengal, and whether or not by reason of that abnormal 

 wind direction, not a single depression formed over the Bay up to the 

 middle of June. Then a disturbance appeared over the Himalayas, 

 weather became disturbed over Bengal, and when the final rise of 

 pressure followed, a depression formed over the north-west of the Bay. 

 That storm recurved to the north-east over the western districts of 

 Bengal. Throughout June, rainfall was abundant in Bengal Proper and 

 Assam, but not in the western districts. 



The second stage began with the Himalayan storm of the J Oth July. 

 It may be remembered that in 1902 the Himalayan storm of August 

 11th was followed by a " remarkable series " of cyclonic storms which 

 formed at intervals of a week. The first three of these moved westward 

 and saved part of Western India from impending famine. The fourth 

 moved northwards into Chota Nagpur and filled up there. Now this 

 year, since the storm of July 10th, there has been an even more remark- 

 able series of cyclonic storms. At regular intervals of five days four 

 depressions of greater or less intensity have formed in the north-west 

 angle. The dates of commencement of these depressions are July 12tli, 

 17tb, 22nd, and 27th. The first was the most severe, and although 

 conditions appeared to be exceptionally favourable for its advance 

 towards Western India it broke up and disappeared about the 15th. 

 The second depression disappeared over Ohota Nagpur and the adjacent 

 part of Central India. The third which began in the north-west angle 

 of the Bay on the 22nd moved rapidly westward, was a well-defined 

 depression over the Central Provinces on the 24th, in the Central Indian 

 Plateau on the 25th, and in the north-west dry area on the 26fch. 



The behaviour, therefore, of the third depression, was quite different 

 from that of the second which filled up in the Chota Nagpur region. 

 The cause of this change was probably the Himalayan storm of the 19th 



