THE CLIMATES OF PARIS AND LONDON COMPARED. 549 



temperate than the south and east, hut hotter than the ex- 

 treme west. The mean temperature of Paris, taken from 

 a series of official and private observations running over 

 thirty-six years, may be taken at 51-55° F. The lowest 

 temperature observed during fifty-two years was 2° below 

 zero F. ; the highest during the same time was within a 

 fraction of 99° F. 



These figures are worthy of a little consideration. For a 

 similar period the averages of the observations taken in 

 London by the officers of the Royal Society are as follows : 

 Mean temperature 50-50° F. ; highest temperature, 97° F. ; 

 the lowest, 5° below zero F. The mean temperature of 

 Paris is therefore a fraction over 1° F. higher than our 

 own, while the highest temperature only exceeds ours by 

 something less than 2° F. 



It will be also instructive to compare the mean tempera- 

 ture of the four seasons in both places with each other. 



Paris. London. 



Fahr. Fahr. 



Mean Temperature, Spring 500 . . 49 - 



Summer 648 



Autumn 52'0 



Winter 395 



625 

 510 

 390 



It must, however, be borne in mind that in the suburbs 

 of London the mean temperature is 2° F. below that of 

 the city, and that on winter nights, when Jack Frost is 

 striving his hardest to destroy all the vegetation within his 

 reach, there is often as much as 4° F. difference between 

 the thermometers of the city and the suburbs. The cause 

 of this variation is twofold. In the summer a large quan- 

 tity of heat is radiated by the masses of brickwork every- 

 where to be found about the city, to say nothing of the 

 amount absorbed and given off again during the night ; 

 while in the winter the city is obviously warmer during 

 both day and night, on account of the extra heat caused by 

 the numerous fires, both industrial and domestic, that are 

 constantly burning within its walls. Paris, as a city, being 

 under precisely similar conditions, we may feel safe in as- 

 suming that the same difference exists between the mean 

 temperature of the Observatory and Montreuil as there 



