REPORT ON METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, WISLEY, 1918. 97 



in the Peak district in the last week of the month, whilst in parts of 

 Essex and Herts strawberries, raspberries, and plums, only just 

 ripened, were gathered. At the Gardens there was a fine display 

 of autumn tints on trees and shrubs, when further growth had ceased 

 owing to the colder weather, and these continued for a longer spell 

 than usual. 



November. — In this month there were two distinct spells of un- 

 usually mild but unsettled weather, one at the beginning and the 

 other at the close of the month. November is seldom a brilliant 

 month, and this year it was fairly true to type in that respect, being 

 damp, dull, and misty for the greater part ; but fairly mild and 

 with quite an average amount of sunshine. The middle of the month 

 was, however, cold and foggy, and occasionally there were some sharp 

 frosts \ but snow and other frozen precipitation was only seldom 

 experienced. The winds were again mainly from southerly and 

 westerly points, and winds from a northerly quarter were rarely felt. 

 The only frosts were those that occurred at night, when the thermo- 

 meter on the ground, fully exposed to the sky and to terrestrial 

 radiation, sometimes fell very low, and sharp ground-frosts were the 

 result. The rainfall of the month was generally less than is usual 

 in November ; but in the northern parts of the kingdom, and also 

 in North Wales, some very large downpours were recorded. 



December. — The chief features of the weather of this month were 

 its abnormal mildness, combined with much wet weather — conditions 

 which were due to the fact that westerly and south-westerly winds 

 blew with great persistency all through the month, quite dominating 

 the weather all over the United Kingdom. In many districts more 

 or less rain fell on two out of every three days right through the month, 

 and in some parts of the British Isles the aggregate fall far exceeded 

 the normal amount ; indeed, in not a few instances daily amounts 

 were reported considerably in excess of any previous maxima on 

 record for the district the station represents. Temperature was in excess 

 of the normal over nearly the whole of the kingdom, and in not a few 

 localities daily maxima were registered higher than any previous 

 maxima of which a record has been preserved for the district. In 

 some districts the mean temperature for the month was quite ten degrees 

 above the normal, and in a few instances maxima were observed in 

 excess of any recorded during the preceding thirty years. As 

 illustrating the general condition of things in the west, an observer 

 on the fringe of Dartmoor reported that, although other Decembers 

 had brought more rain, yet, in his many years' experience, he had never 

 known anything like the ceaseless downpour of the last six weeks 

 of the year. With such a record of rainy weather the small amount 

 of sunshine recorded everywhere was only what might have been 

 expected, and in many parts of the kingdom the deficiency was very 

 marked. As examples of this, some counties in the northern half of 

 England had only ten, seven, and even three hours of sunshine 

 registered in the whole month — amounts which, it need scarcely be 

 observed, are greatly below the average for the month. 



