1036 A Seventh Memoir on the Law of Storms in India. [No. 131. 



Almorah. Latitude 29°-35' N. Longitude 79° 40' E. from J. H. 

 Batten, Esq. Assistant Commissioner of Revenue, Kemaon. 



This valuable and graphic account of what seems to be the ultimate 

 effect of the storm, which I owe to the polite attention of Mr. Batten, 

 will be perused by the Meteorologist with much interest. 



" As storms are frequent in the hills, (though this year has been 

 excessively dry,) and the great rains are generally preceded by the 

 " chota bursat" at the end of May or beginning of June, I did not make 

 any particular observations at the time of your storm ; but as the 

 smallest information as to the weather at that period would appear to 

 be valuable, I beg to send you these few lines. 



" The weather at Almorah, during all May, was unpleasantly warm 

 for the hills. Up to the 18th May, the Thermometer in the house 

 shewed a maximum heat of 75°, and a minimum of 73°, and I often 

 saw the mercury at noon day 74°, and at midnight still standing un- 

 moved at 74°. After the 18th, the heat began to increase, and from 

 that day till the 30th, the minimum height of the mercury was 75°, 

 and the maximum was sometimes, though rarely, as high as 80° ; 

 but for the greater number of days it attained to 77°- On the 21st, 

 there occurred a dry North-wester at evening, and from the numer- 

 ous ploughed fields which surround the station, arose a regular storm 

 of dust, such as is seen on a larger scale in the plains. During the 

 whole month, the atmosphere was unusually thick and hazy, and the 

 mountains, only two miles distant in a horizontal direction, were 

 obscured from view. During the hot dry weather in the hills, this 

 hazy appearance is usual, and whenever the haze becomes very thick 

 indeed, at the horizon, rain may generally be expected to follow. 

 Here and there slight rain did fall, and the appearance of the clouds, 

 piled up in cumuli at the horizon from S. E. to S. W., from which a con- 

 stant scud issued and passed over towards the Snowy range, was highly 

 electrical. During the last week of the month, the wind which had 

 been at S. W., with dry N. Westers occurring nearly every evening, 

 changed to the N. E., E., and S. E. On the 30th and 31st, the wea- 

 ther was very sultry, and the haze extraordinarily thick. On the 

 31st, from 4 p. m. to 6 p. m., there was a fine fall of rain, the wind 

 veering from N. W. to N. E. On that evening, the Thermometer in 

 the house fell from 80° to 72° ; and in the verandah it was as low as 



