RAINFALL AT SARK, HERM AND ALDERNEY. 137 



Again, as in April and May, all the early part of August 

 was anticyclonic and dry. At Sark no rain fell from July 

 28th to August Kith inclusive, or for 1 0 days. At Alderney 

 the drought was of 16 days' duration only, it having begun 

 four days later in that island. Very warm and sunny weather 

 was experienced during the prevalence of this drought- — in 

 fact it was practically our sole taste of summer this year. 

 The heat burst began on the 5th, and ended on the 16th with 

 the approach of showery weather which lasted rather over a 

 week. 



The figures for September, given in the Table, show a 

 marked difference in the totals for the two smaller islands. 

 The Alderney amount is actually double that for Sark with 

 which island we may also couple Les Blanches (Guernsey) 

 where the month's aggregate was 1*84 in. One day's rainfall, 

 Friday, the 10th, appears to have been responsible for the 

 difference. On that and the following day the centre of a 

 well-marked but not deep depression lay over Brittany, and in 

 some way or other Alderney managed to get included in a 

 portion of the system from which very heavy precipitation 

 occurred. At any rate against 0*15 in. only at Sark and 

 0*24 in. at Les Blanches (Guernsey), Alderney had no less 

 than 1*49 in. — an inch and a-half practically. It fell during 

 the night from the 1 0th to the 11th, and in writing about it 

 Mr. Picot said : — " Rarely has there been in Alderney such a 

 downpour of rain." It is interesting also to note, by the way, 

 that the area of tremendous rain must have stretched right 

 across the Channel, for the observer at Portland Bill recorded 

 1*07 in. for the same day. In the afternoon of the 7th 

 September, " a huge waterspout " was seen seven miles N.E. 

 of Braye Roadstead, Alderney. 



October was a particularly wet and unsettled period. 

 At Les Blanches (Guernsey) the month's total rainfall, 

 7*1 8 in., has only been exceeded three times as a monthly total 

 in the sixteen years 1894—1909. At Sark it is the wettest 

 month on record so far, while Alderney can show but one 

 worse — October, 1907, with 7*97 in. It was a typical October, 

 not cold, but boisterous, wet and gloomy with, in addition, at 

 Alderney, thunder and lightning on the 8th and 24th. Sark 

 had an unusually large number of heavy showers this month ; 

 on five occasions the gauge contained over half-an-inch of 

 rain and on five other occasions the measurement reached or 

 exceeded a quarter of an inch. Heavy rainfalls are not by 

 any means the rule at Sark, but of course exceptions will 

 occur from time to time. 



K 



