EAINFALL OF GUERNSEY. • 389 



the visitation. August 9th brought a heavy rainfall to all the 

 islands, with, in addition to Alderney where the deposit was 

 least, a " thunderstorm in east." As the table shows the total 

 rainfall for August at Sark and Herm was identical ; even at 

 Alderney the difference was trifling. 



The September drought was of the same duration in all 

 the islands, viz., 20 days. It began on the 5th and ended on 

 the 25th. The break up of this drought marked the beginning 

 of the 1907-8 rainy season and w^as immediately followed by 

 an October which upheld its reputation of being usually the 

 wettest month of the year. Unlike some of the earlier months 

 which show a remarkable similarity of rainfall, as, for instance, 

 August (see the table), March and some others, October's 

 total downpour varied by as much as 2*77 ins. in the smaller 

 islands, Alderney being very decidedly the wettest place and 

 Sark the driest. At Alderney the total just stopped short of 

 eight inches, and is a bigger amount than has ever been 

 emptied out of my gauge at Les Blanches in a single month 

 during the fourteen years, 1894-1907. On five days at 

 Alderney this month the fall exceeded half-an-inch against 

 four such big downpours at Herm and one only at Sark. 

 Twice indeed at Alderney the daily fall exceeded one inch. 

 Of the first (1*15 in. on the 1st) Mr. Picot wrote : " Stormy, 

 terrific squalls of wind and rain;" of the second (1*08 in. on 

 the 18th), " terrific downpour 4 p.m., 0*98 in. rain fell in hori- 

 zontal sheets." At Guernsey that day a fresh to strong S. 

 to S.W. gale raged and the heaviest rainfall reported to Mr. 

 Collenette was 0*62 in. from FAncresse, and the smallest, 

 0*27 in. from Les Blanches. At Sark and Herm the amount 

 was as low as 0*20 and O'lo in. respectively. A thunderstorm 

 visited Alderney on the 8th October, when another big down- 

 pour (0*86 in.) occurred and smaller amounts at the other 

 stations. Lightning Avas seen at Guernsey on the evening of 

 that day. 



November 25th was the occasion of Sark's biggest down- 

 pour for the year and, as the table shows, it exceeded one inch 

 (1*11 inch). At Alderney the amount was below half-an-inch 

 (0'47 in.), but at Jersey topped one inch and a half (1*66 inch). 

 The Herm observations having been unfortunately discontinued 

 on the 23rd, the amount of the fall at this station is not known. 



Considered as a whole there is very little difi'erence in 

 the total rainfall of 1907 as compared with that of 1906, 

 especially at Sark, but 1907 was the wetter of the two. 

 As in 1906 Alderney has again proved itself a more rainy 

 island than Sark, but unfortunately Herm's position cannot be 



