142 BAILIWICK RAINFALL. 



the 31st, and Sark, favoured Sark, came off with three dry- 

 days only in this month against seven at Alderney. As a 

 matter of fact Sark and Alderney again changed places in 

 March and to such an extent (0*47 in.) that in the accumulated 

 totals they did not recover their rightful place again until the 

 end of the year. With the surplus over Alderney gained by 

 Sark in January, S ark's total at the end of March was 

 10*70 in. against 10*02 in. at Alderney. 



Alderney reported a " gale and whirlwind " with rain and 

 hail, during the afternoon of February 12th, 



An unusually heavy fall of hail accompanied by thunder 

 and lightning occurred at Guernsey on Tuesday evening, 

 March 10th. The shower fell between 9 and 10.30 o'clock 

 and yielded 0*34 in. of Avater. More hail showers fell during 

 the night bringing the total precipitation for the 10th up to 

 0*45 in., all of which came down in the form of hail. 



An almost total eclipse of the moon in the early morning 

 of March 12th was invisible in the islands because of pouring 

 rain. The only thing observed in connection with the pheno 

 menon was that the night grew very dark as the eclipse 

 progressed. 



Twice during this lengthy spell of unsettled weather the 

 barometer fell to a very low level. The first occasion was on 

 February 22nd when a drop to 28*7 in. occurred. A month 

 later, on March 20th, another deep depression sent the mercury 

 down to 28*6 in. The barometer had not been so low at 

 Guernsey since December 29th, 1899, when a reading of 

 28*5 in. was registered at Les Blanches. Comparatively little 

 precipitation accompanied these two big atmospheric swirls 

 and nothing very violent either in the way of wind was expe- 

 rienced. The centre of the depression of March 20th lay 

 right over the English Channel between Weymouth and Brest 

 at 7 o'clock on the morning of that day. 



The long spell of very unsettled and wet weather which 

 at last came to an end on Good Friday, April 10th, was imme- 

 diately followed by an ''absolute" drought. For 18 days, 

 from April 11th to 28th inclusive, no rain at all fell at any of 

 the stations and some very sunny and warm weather was 

 experienced. For instance, for a whole week (from the 15th 

 to the 21st) unbroken sunshine prevailed day after day and 

 bright starlight followed at night. Daily for the whole of 

 that glorious week over 12 hours of: bright sunshine were ours 

 to enjoy. And as regards temperature, the 21st with a 

 maximum and mean respectively of 65*8 and 57*1 deg. was to 

 date the warmest April day at Les Blanches for thirteen years. 



