NOTES OX THE RAINFALL. 



327 



(19 days) began and ended respectively on January 26th and 

 February 13th. At Guernsey we experienced only 14 abso- 

 lutely dry days while the " partial " drought was of 33 days' 

 duration against 37 at Sark and Alderney. 



A protracted spell of broken, unsettled weather now 

 followed, but as heavy rainfalls were few r and far between the 

 accumulated total for the year continued deficient. As a 

 matter of fact, indeed, as far as Guernsey ( Les Blanches) is 

 concerned, none of the year's rainy intervals was sufficiently 

 wet to bring the total up to the normal until the advent 

 of December, such was the effect of the very dry summer 

 experienced. 



At the end of February the tAvo smaller islands ran each 

 other very closely, the total for the two months being 

 2*58 in. at Sark and 2*63 in. at Alderney, Guernsey (as usual) 

 with 3*37 in. taking the lead. Although the rainfall of the 

 three islands is always in general agreement and easily 

 comparable, interesting differences occur from time to time 

 which make the tabulation and discussion of the returns an 

 instructive study. 



On March 6th, a sunless and wet day at Guernsey, and 

 where rain fell continuously from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to the 

 amount of 0*23 in. at Les Blanches, only 0*06 in. was 

 measured at Sark, while Alderney reported the day as having 

 been perfectly dry. Mr. Picot recorded a thunderstorm at 

 Alderney during the evening of the loth, and lightning was 

 observed in this island. At Jersey, by the way, a severe 

 electrical disturbance with heavy hail storms occurred after 

 sunset of the same day. At St. Aubin's the rainfall amounted 

 to 0-1 5 in. 



April began well as regards temperature. We thought 

 we had done with wintry weather in any shape or form and 

 were congratulating ourselves on having enjoyed a mild season 

 when cold of such bitter intensity for the time of year 

 developed as probably to create a record in local meteoro- 

 logical annals. Fortunately for crops and vegetation gene- 

 rally, the keenest part of the terrible wintry blast with its 

 accompaniment of ice and snow was of short duration, for the 

 new spring growth was well advanced when, without warning, 

 the cold snap rushed over the Channel Islands and wrought 

 havoc amongst the young and tender shoots of trees, shrubs 

 and crops in all directions. The worst day was Thursday, the 

 6th. At Guernsey (Les Blanches) the mean temperature 

 actually worked out below the freezing point, viz. at 30*2 deg., 

 and the maximum and minimum respectively was 32*6 deg. and 



