RAINFALL AT SAEK, HEEM AND ALDERNEY. 135 



St. Martin's the average height of water in 1904 was seven 

 feet against three feet only in 1902 and in 1909. 



But I must now return more particularly to the weather 

 of 1909 in the smaller islands as recorded by the rainfall 

 registered there. The year began with a dry month and by 

 a curious coincidence, as shown in the Table, the total 

 measurement at Sark and Herm was exactly similar. An 

 " absolute " drought, which in the technical sense of the word 

 means an interval of more than 14 days without any rain at 

 all, was noted by Capt. Henry, at Sark, in January. It 

 began on the 19th of the month and ended on February 2nd, 

 having lasted 15 days. Droughts in the winter portion of 

 the year are rarities — at any rate at Guernsey. 



In February, an exceptionally dry month, Sark narrowly 

 escaped another drought, for no rain fell at the station for 14 

 days, viz., from the 12th to the 25th. Alderney on the other 

 hand enjoyed one of 15 days' duration, for Mr. Picot's returns 

 show that no rain fell there from the 12th to the 26th. At 

 Les Blanches (Guernsey), because of the occurrence of slight 

 precipitation during both the January and February dry 

 spells, no drought was noted. Apart from these small 

 technicalities, however, and speaking practically, the weather 

 was just as dry in all the islands. 



At the end of February and the beginning of March a 

 sharp, cold snap reigned over the Bailiwick and we experienced 

 a week of snoAvy conditions. Snow fell in varying amounts at 

 all the stations from February 26th to March 4th and keen 

 frosts occurred. Alderney appears to have had most snow and 

 and Sark least, for the seven days' precipitation yielded 0*86 in. 

 of water in the former island and 0*60 in. only in the latter, 

 Les Blanches ^Guernsey) with 0*76 in. occupying an inter- 

 mediate position. 



Throughout the Bailiwick March was the second wettest 

 month of the year. From beginning to end we were treated 

 to an unbroken succession of depressions the passage of which 

 kept the barometer unusually low and the rain gauges 

 continuously busy. Several dry days, it is true, occurred 

 both at Sark and Alderney, but at Les Blanches (Guernsey) 

 one day only out of the thirty-one proved dry. 



April began dry everywhere and continued so until past 

 the middle of the month — indeed but for a little rain at the 

 several stations on the 12th (Easter Monday) another drought 

 would have been put on record as the change to unsettled 

 only set in on the 17th. Two days later, during the afternoon 

 of the 19th, an early spring thunderstorm burst over the 



