THE WEATHER OF THE HORTICULTURAL YEAR 1911-12. 533 



THE WEATHER OF THE HORTICULTUEAL YEAR 1911-12. 



ByR. H. Curtis, Hon. F.R.H.S. 



With the advent of October one may consider the horticultural and 

 agricultural year tO' have come to an end, and it therefore seems an 

 appropriate point at which one may take a brief general survey of 

 the weather conditions which have prevailed throughout the technical 

 year, in anticipation of the more detailed account which it is usual 

 to give with the report on the observations made at Wisley during the 

 calendar year. 



Going back, then, for twelve months, we find that October 1911, 

 the opening month of the technical year, began- with fairly warm and 

 sunny weather, which, however, gradually became unsettled as the 

 month progressed, causing a somewhat heavy rainfall, over the south- 

 eastern counties of England, although elsewhere the total precipitation 

 for the month did not differ greatly from the average amount. The 

 two following months were both windy and wet, but not cold, and 

 although in places there was an abnormal amount of rain, particularly 

 during December, yet generally speaking there was an average amount 

 of sunshine; frosts were infrequent and not severe, and there was 

 less than the usual amount of snow. 



January of 1912 opened with warm weather for the time of 

 year, but this was soon followed by sharp frosts, during the continu- 

 ance of which some very low night temperatures were recorded by 

 thermometers freely exposed to radiation by being laid upon the 

 ground, and especially was this the case towards the close of the 

 montli. Except in the north and west of Scotland, and the north 

 of Ireland, the rainfall was again heavy, and in some districts this 

 resulted in floods, which in the Thames Valley and in portions of 

 Sussex and elsewhere were very severe, and the cause of much damage 

 and loss to farmers and others. In February the rainfall was generally 

 less than the average, but it was still excessive over the southern 

 counties of England and also in Ireland. Some very low temperatures 

 were, however, observed during the opening days of the month in 

 nearly every part of the kingdom, the thermometer in some northern 

 districts falling very low indeed; but the cold spell did not last very 

 long, and throughout the greater part of the month the weather was 

 boisterous and unusually mild, the average temperature for the month 

 being above the normal. March was another warm month, particu- 

 larly over the southern half of England; but this high average was 

 due less to warm days than to warm nights, the fact being that the 

 days were less warm than usual, whilst the nights were w^armer, 

 both resulting from the prevalent cloudiness which not only inter- 

 cepted much of the solar radiation by day, but also prevented loss of 

 heat by terrestrial radiation at night. 



