1914.] BAILIWICK KAINFALL. 143 



Another delightful interval of unbroken sunshine and 

 warm weather occurred in May. The heat wave burst over 

 us on the 14th, and two days later we experienced the first of 

 six consecutive days of uninterrupted sunshine and equally 

 fine starlight nights. No rain either fell in any of the islands 

 from the 11th to the 21st, and then sunshine, heat and drought 

 were all broken into by the passage of a sharp thunderstorm 

 (the first of the season) during the afternoon of Friday, the 

 22nd. The lightning did damage at several places in the low- 

 lying districts of Guernsey and the rainfall was much heavier 

 in town than at St. Martin's, 0*49 in. being measured at the 

 Guille-Alles Library against 0*28 in. only at Les Blanches. 

 At Sark the thunderstorm rain was slight, viz., 0'03 in. ; at 

 Alderney it was 0*19 in. 



The cooling effect of the passage of the thunderstorm was 

 unusually well marked, and from being unpleasantly warm the 

 weather became unpleasantly cold. From the high daily mean 

 at Les Blanches of 59*9 deg. on the 20th a drop occurred to 

 47*7 deg. on the 26th, while the fall in the maximum reading 

 was from 70*0 deg. to 53*0 deg. To the end of the month the 

 weather continued cool, but very little more rain fell after that 

 of the thunderstorm. 



At Sark the driest month of the year was May ; at 

 Alderney and Guernsey it was June. Actually, as the Table 

 shows, there is very little difference in the amounts for the 

 two months at Sark and Alderney. At Guernsey (Les 

 Blanches) the difference is still smaller, the totals being: 

 May 0-95 in., June 0'92 in. 



June was the last of three consecutive dry months. That 

 April, May and June — all three — suffered very considerably 

 from drought will be clear when it is stated that whereas the 

 normal rainfall at Les Blanches for this quarter of the year is 

 6 '20 in. the actual was 3*08 in. only. It was just at this time 

 — June — that the so far easily maintained surplus in the 

 year's rainfall was threatened with extinction, for the month 

 went out with an excess over the average for the six months 

 of 0*41 in. against 3*53 in. at the end of March. These 

 are the Les Blanches figures. July, however, and the two 

 following months being each in every sense of the word wet as 

 regards total precipitation, the surplus grew again to big- 

 proportions. 



The tail end of a thunderstorm passed over Alderney at 

 about 1 1 p.m. on June 8th. The full strength of the storm is 

 reported to have been spent in the Channel north of the island 

 where, in the moonlight, much rain was observed to be falling. 



