HE KM AND ALDERXEY. 547 



its first frost of the season — rather a severe one for the time of 

 year. 



The remarkable weather experienced at Guernsey on the 

 morning of Tuesday, December 29th (when for some hours the 

 roads all over the island were a veritable skating rink owing to 

 the very unusual phenomenon of rain falling steadily with 

 a temperature well below the freezing point), included Sark 

 and extended to Alderney. The rainfall was different, how- 

 ever, for whereas Mr. Picot reported 0*40 in. from Alderney, 

 (and labelled the day as "real blizzard, glazed frost, rain ") ; 

 Capt. Henry at Sark collected 0'2() in. only in his gauge — not 

 much more than half the Alderney amount. At Les Blanches 

 in this island the depression gave a rainfall of 0*44 in., and 

 at St. Aubyn's, Jersey, of 0*53 in. This same low pressure 

 system gave heavy snowfalls over the south of England 

 including London. 



Heaviest daily rainfall of year : — 



Sark, 0*62 in., February 16th. 



Herm, 



Alderney, 1*04 in., April 24th. 



Wettest and driest months of year : — 



Sark, 2-90 in. December ; 0'4o in. June. 

 Herm, 3-63 in. „ 0*33 in. „ 



Alderney, 3*79 in. „ 0*58 in. „ 



SARK AND ALDERNEY RAINFALL RECORDS, 



1865-1876. 



It is very interesting to note in connection with the 

 measurements of rainfall begun in the smaller islands of the 

 Bailiwick on January 1st, 19U6, that similar weather observa- 

 tions were conducted both at Sark and Alderney for a 

 considerable period some thirty to forty years ago. In 

 a comparative table of the rainfall of the islands published in 

 the Gueru.^cy Magazine for December, 1875, a number of 

 the yearly totals are given, but the series is not complete. In 

 Symons's " British Rainfall," however, all the early volumes of 

 which the Gruille-Alles Library is fortunate in possessing, the 

 complete series of observations appears and I have thought it 

 would be interesting to incorporate the totals here. This I 

 have done in a separate table, which follows, and in which 

 too I have included the figures for Guernsey also for these 

 years, as given in " British Rainfall." 



K 



