RAINFALL AT SARK AND ALDERNEY* 



243 



menced late in the evening of Monday the 6th and prevailed 

 until well into the morning of the 7th, appears to have been 

 heaviest in this island, 0*70 in. of rain falling at Les Blanches 

 and as much as 0*97 in. at Les Heches, St. Peter's-in-the 

 Wood. At Sark, Capt. Henry measured 0.49 in. only as a 

 result of the storm, while Alderney escaped with a paltry 

 0*03 in. There the disturbance must have been of the slightest 

 for Mr. Picot's description of the day's weather was merely 

 " thunder and lightning at night." Two days later, however 

 (on the 8th) when the second thunderstorm occurred Alderney 

 abundantly made up for what it had lost on the earlier 

 occasion for the observer's note ran : " severe thunderstorm, 

 8.30 p.m., tropical downpour ; " and the tropical downpour 

 was nothing less than 1*08 in. At Sark only 0*45 in. of 

 rain fell in the storm and at Les Blanches still less, viz. : 

 0*32 in. In another part of Guernsey ( L'Ancresse) 0*67 in. 

 was measured. At Guernsey and Sark, by the way, the 

 thunderstorm prevailed during the afternoon, but at Alderney 

 in the evening. 



On the 27th of June, by a curious coincidence, 0*05 in. 

 of rain fell in the three islands, but on the 29th while 0*08 in. 

 only fell at Alderney, Sark had 0*26 in. and Guernsey (Les 

 Blanches) 0*32 in. Very great differences in rainfall are noted 

 from time to time in the Channel Islands and that quite apart 

 from a thundery state of the weather when, as is well known, 

 places but a short distance apart will frequently show a 

 marked diversity of rainfall. For instance, on the 9th of 

 June no less than 1*32 in. fell at St. Aubin's, Jersey, against 

 0*31 in. at Les Blanches, 0*33 in. at Sark and 0*14 in. at 

 Alderney. 



July was an abnormally cold month for the time of year 

 and it proved a wet period as well. Both at Sark and 

 Alderney it was by a long way the wettest July of the 

 five years 1906-1910, and the total measurement in each 

 island (see Table) was practically the same. A week and two 

 days of absolutely dry weather was experienced beginning on 

 the 6th, but from the 15th onwards continuously wet and 

 rough conditions prevailed, rain falling almost daily and 

 frequently heavily. 



The unseasonable weather of the last half of July spread 

 into August which ran its course to the tune of deficient 

 sunshine, low temperature and frequent show r ers. Again 

 in both of the smaller islands it was the wettest month of the 

 name since rainfall observations were commenced in 1906. A 

 thunderstorm occurred during the evening of Sunday the 14th, 



