METEOROLOGY. 



Rev. H. H. Winwood, M.A., F.G.S. 



A T the meeting of the British Association in Bath, during 

 the year 1864, the Rev. Leonard Blomfield (then Jenyns) 

 read a paper before Section A on the " Temperature and 

 Rainfall of Bath." After first describing the sources of his 

 information, he gave the following as the results of his 

 observations : — That having at various times compared the 

 temperature at Bath during periods of unusual heat or cold 

 with what it had been at other places on the same days, 

 more especially with the temperature recorded at Greenwich, 

 Cambridge, and Nottingham, he found that on an average 

 the maximum temperature in extreme seasons had been 

 5° lower and the minimum 5° higher at Bath than else- 

 where. He went on to state that, in his opinion, the 

 hills surrounding Bath had a very important effect in 

 moderating the heat of summer and in tempering the cold 

 in winter. The fact,, too, of the position of the city in a 

 basin may cause that oppressive feel of the atmosphere in 

 calm and sultry weather, which would be relieved by an 

 ascent to the high plateau above. Passing from the tem- 

 perature to the rainfall, he stated that the average annual 

 fall in the town at a height of 90 ft. above sea level was 

 3i"97 inches. One of the many beneficial results from that 

 meeting was the determination of the Committee of the 

 Royal Literary and Scientific Institution to at once com- 

 mence systematic meteorological observations. Accordingly, 

 at the advice and under the direction of Mr. Jenyns, an ob- 

 servatory was erected in as suitable a place as could be found 



