1916.] THE BAILIWICK RAINFALL. 319 



saying that truth is stranger than fiction. For while January 

 1916 was very much the warmest month of the name of the 

 last 24 years, January 1917, with a mean temperature of 

 38*3 deg. (5*1 deg. below the normal) is very much the coldest 

 January of the same period. An account of the severe cold 

 and frost of this month — the worst experienced here since 

 that memorable February of 1895— --is, however, a story 

 for another occasion. 



The winter of 1915-16 (Dec.-^Feb.j, exceptionally mild to 

 past the middle of February, was not to end without giving 

 us a taste of wintry weather, for a cold snap set in on 

 February 21st and prevailed up to March 11th. This 

 interval was remarkable, not so much for intensity of frost as 

 for heavy snowfalls it gave from February 23rd to 27th and 

 again from March 6th to 8th. Who can have forgotten the 

 wintry aspect of the island on these days? Dr. Mill, from 

 whom I have already quoted, speaking for England, said : 

 "The severe snowstorms of February and March will long 

 remain in memory." As collected in the gauge at Les 

 Blanches no less than 1'72 in. of water was measured from 

 melted snow, viz., 1*12 in. as the product of the February 

 storms and 0*60 in. of those of March. Together this 

 represented a depth of at least 20 inches of snow ! It is 

 fairly safe to say that since the bitter winter of 1890-91, at 

 any rate, no year had given so much snow here. Fortunately 

 a rapid thaw followed immediately each of the several snow- 

 falls, so that at no time was there any very great depth of 

 snow lying on the ground. 



Less snow fell both at Sark and Alderney than at 

 Guernsey. A higher temperature apparently prevailed in the 

 smaller islands on some of these cold days, for the Lighthouse 

 Keepers at Sark and Mr. Picot at Alderney reported rain on 

 February 25th and 26th, two days on which snow fell 

 plentifully in this island. But both snow spells were 

 experienced all over the Bailiwick, and of the March falls 

 Mr. Picot wrote under date of the 7th : " Much snow during 

 the night." The water collected from the melted snow 

 (0*46 in.) pointed indeed to a depth of some six inches. The 

 next morning Sark lay under a mantle two and a half inches 

 deep, as reported by Mr. Kaye. A lot of snow fell at Guernsey 

 on this day also, which was Ash Wednesday, but it was the 

 last of the snow and the end almost of the long cold snap. 

 This struggled on for three days more then ended suddenly on 

 Sunday, the 12th, with the passage, in the evening, of two 

 thunderstorms of moderate intensity and most distinctly of the 

 summer type of disturbance — in mid-March ! 



