NOTES ON THE EAINFALL AND WEATHER 

 OF THE BAILIWICK IN 1914, 



WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SARK AND ALDERNEY. 

 BY BASIL T. ROWSWELL. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The year 1914, considered as a whole, was warm and wet. 

 At Les Blanches, Guernsey, its mean temperature, 51*8 deg., 

 was 0*7 deg. above the normal of the twenty years 1894-1913, 

 and its rainfall, 40*07 in., was 5*50 in. in excess. It was the 

 fourth successive warm and the fifth successive wet year as 

 shown below. 



1910. 1911. 1912. 1913. 1914. Normal 

 Temperature (deg.)... 50*7 52*0 51*3 51*7 51*8 51*1 

 Rainfall (in.) 45*54 34*74 45*55 35*09 40*07 34*57 



The peculiar see-saw fluctuation of the rainfall total since 

 1909, referred to in the last report, is going on, as the figures 

 given above show. The same peculiarity is noticeable in the 

 Sark and Alderney totals. 



January was a very dry month and the year provided 

 others, April and June in particular, but onwards from 

 February (that month included) the year's accumulated rain- 

 fall at Les Blanches was always in excess of the average. 

 March and December were two very wet intervals, the latter 

 month with 8*29 in. of rain being the second wettest month at 

 this station during the last 21 years. The year provided both 

 droughts and rain spells, details of which will be found tabu- 

 lated at the end of this paper. 



That the twelvemonth was a wet one is proved by this, 

 that right back to at any rate 1894 only two wetter years have 

 been recorded. These were 1910 and 1912, each of which 

 years finished up with a total rainfall exceeding 45 inches. 



Previous to 1910 the yearly total had always been below 

 39 inches at Les Blanches, but now three times in five years 

 (and twice very much so) the amount has run up to an aggre- 

 gate exceeding 40 inches. This in itself seems to point to an 



