1916.] THE BAILIWICK KAINFALL. 317 



what 1917 will produce in the matter of rainfall), running 

 through a series of wet years. This, as argued out in my 

 paper last year, does not necessarily point to a changing 

 climate, but is more likely to be, as it seems to me, a balancing 

 of nature in this element. 



The year was cold as Avell as wet. Cold months pre- 

 dominated as had been the case in 1915, but on the whole the 

 year was warmer, its mean temperature at Les Blanches being, 

 as shown above, 0*3 deg. higher than that of 1915. The 

 months that departed most largely from the normal were 

 January and June, but by a curious reversal of the usual 

 order of things the winter month was extraordinarily mild, 

 the summer month almost as extraordinarily cold. As a 

 matter of fact, indeed, January was the warmest month of the 

 name and June the coldest of the 23 years, 1894-1916. 

 Normally June is 12*7 deg. warmer than January ; this time 

 the difference was only 5*3 deg. The figures are : January, 

 1916, 47-7 deg., normal 43*4 deg.; June, 1916, 53'0 deg., 

 normal 56*1 deg. Each of the four seasons had one warm 

 month, viz., Winter : January, + 4*3 deg. ; Spring : May, 

 + 1*5 deg.; Summer: August, + 1*4 deg.; Autumn: 

 October, + 0*9 deg. All the other months had a mean 

 temperature which worked out below the normal. 



The year 1916 was very Avet over the British Isles. 

 Writing on the subject in The Times of January 25th, Dr. 

 Mill, the Director of the British Rainfall Organization, said : 

 " It is probable that in the last 50 years the British Isles as a 

 whole have only been wetter than in 1916 four times, viz., 

 1903, 1882, 1877 and 1872. In the last seven years only one 

 (1911) had appreciably less than the average; in the pre- 

 ceding seven years only one (1903) exceeded the average; 

 so that the return of drier years seems about due." 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



The year 1916 began with a remarkably lengthy spell of 

 excessively mild weather, which was also deficient in rainfall — 

 a very unusual combination in the winter season. As however 

 temperature, not rainfall, was the striking feature of these 

 early weeks its record mainly will be dealt with here. 



The mild weather really began on December 21st (1915), 

 and ending on February 7th, was of exactly seven weeks' 

 duration. During the whole of this interval the daily mean 

 temperature at Les Blanches was continuously above the 

 normal — to what extent may be gathered from the table 

 appended where the mean temperature of each of the seven 



