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DIVISION I.— MIDDLESEX. 



Meteorological Observations on the Year 1879 from 

 Middlesex.* 



A year of unusual amount of bad and inclement weather, with 

 absence of sunshine, a prevalence of fog, a low temperature, and, for 

 the first three quarters, a low barometer (Isle worth). The last 

 three months were very dry (Enfield). There were only 92 days 

 on which the sun shone for more than two hours. There was a 

 very marked absence of wind from the middle of September till the 

 last three days of December. The average temperature of every 

 month during the year was below the monthly average of 10 pre- 

 vious years, and the mean temp, of the year was 4°-7 below the av. 

 of 10 years (Uxbridge, Harefield). The autumn was exceptionally 

 and continuously cold, extremely dry and rather dull, with a calm 

 and humid atmosphere. Fogs frequent, with a prevalence of N. 

 Easterly winds ; bar. high. Few things ripened ; apples and pears being 

 about one-fourth of an ordinary crop ; many vegetables, such as toma- 

 toes and vegetable marrows, would not ripen at all. Potatoes, nearly 

 all rotten. Throughout the summer the air was very damp. Great 

 floods were in the valley of the Thames ; the hay was inferior and 

 difficult to save (Hanworth), A year of culminating disaster to 

 agriculture and garden crops ; of luxuriant growth in fruit trees but 

 of weak and unripened wood (Isleworth). Rainfall, 4-94 ins. 

 above the av. of 7 previous years, rain fell on 204 days (Muswell 

 Hill); 2-39 ins. above the av. of 5 years (Enfield). Min. rainfall, 

 Westminster, alt.,t 95 ft. ; ht.,J 66 ft. 4 ins. ; 27-18 ins., on 155 

 days : max., Mill Hill School, alt., 400 ft. ; ht., 7 ins. ; 36-27 ins. 

 Min. Temps., Enfield, Dec. 7th, 1879, 7°-9 ; Colney Hatch, 6°-8.§ 



* Observers' notes on the year 1879, Symons's "British Rainfall"; and 

 "The Weather of 1879," by Ed. Mawley. 

 t Alt. refers to the altitude above the sea level. 

 % Ht. refers to the height of the guage above the ground. 

 § On the Frost of December 1879, over the British Isles, by W. Marriott. 



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