The Spring of 1907. 
291 
western Europe and occasioned winds of great violence from 
west or north-west over the entire kingdom. Throughout the 
winter there was, for the time of year, an unusual tendency 
for the development of thunderstorms, nearly all places being 
affected to a gi'eater or less extent. 
The Spring of 1907. 
The spring opened with fair, quiet weather, culminating at 
the close of March in a phenomenal spell of brilliant sunshine 
over nearly the entire kingdom. Later on a steady detei-ior- 
ation took place. April being unusually cold and ungenial, and 
May of a proverbially fickle character. The mean tenq^erature 
of the season was above the average, but rainfall was also 
in excess, and the deficiency of sunshine which would have 
been recorded very generally was averted in the eastern and 
southern districts alone by the brilliant weather of March. 
The wannest weather of the season occurred on May 11 
or 12, when the thermometer in the shade rose to between 
7.5" and 80" in many parts of the country, and exceeded the 
latter level at a few scattered ])laces in the midland and 
southern counties. The only other times when the thermometer 
rose even as high as 70" were at the end of March when 
that value was exceeded at a few places in the eastern and 
midland districts, and on April 24, when similarly high 
readings were observed more generally in the south and east 
of England. Two days after the burst of warmth in April 
there were many places even in the southern parts of the 
country and on the coast, in which the thermometer failed to 
rise as high as 45". The lowest temperatures of the spring 
occurred on or about March 5 or March 12, on each of which 
occasions a sharp frost })revailed very generally ; on the latter 
occasion the screened thermometer fell to 20" or less in several 
parts of our midland and southern counties. Sharp frosts 
occurred also about the middle of April, mostly o7i the 18th 
or 19th, and between May 18 and 22, the latter occasioning 
a large amount of damage to fruit blossoms, and in some 
localities to the tenderer kinds of ground crops. 
The rainfall of the spring was everywhere in excess of the 
average, the excess amounting in nearly all districts to at least 
20 per cent., in the south of England to 2(! per cent, and in the 
north-eastern counties to 28 per cent Rainy days were also 
numerous, most places recording in a total of ninety-two days 
at least fifty with a measurable amount of rain, being eight or 
nine more than the average. The heaviest individual falls 
occurred in the western and northern parts of the country on 
March 16 and on May 13 and 14. In the latter case the fall 
[Continued on pace 21*4. 
u 2 
