The  Weather  of  the  Past  Agricultural  Year.  413 
reading  of  92"  at  Epsom.  After  this  the  weather  again  broke 
up  completely  and  in  the  closing  half  of  the  month  a gradual 
decline  in  temperature  occurred,  with  thunderstorms  and 
occasional  heavy  falls  of  rain  in  nearly  all  districts.  On  the 
17th  considerably  more  than  an  inch  of  rain  was  measured  at 
a large  number  of  stations  in  eastern,  central,  and  southern 
England,  more  than  two  inches  at  Salisbury,  and  more  than 
two  inches  and  a half  at  Maidenhead  ; while  on  the  19th 
another  heavy  fall  occurred  in  several  isolated  parts  of  the 
country. 
For  the  summer  as  a whole,  the  mean  temperature  was 
considerably  below  the  average  in  all  districts,  and  rainfall  in 
excess  of  the  normal  excepting  in  the  south-western  counties. 
In  the  latter  region  the  duration  of  bright  sunshine  was  in 
close  agreement  with  the  average  but  elsewhere  it  was  rather 
deficient.  Following  a phenomenally  bright  April  and  May  the 
amount  of  sunshine  at  Westminster  in  June  was  the  smallest 
on  record  for  the  month  since  the  observations  commenced  in 
1883. 
The  Autumn  op  1909. 
After  a week  of  changeable  showery  weather  at  the  begin- 
ning of  September,  with  severe  thunderstorms  on  the  6th  in 
some  parts  of  our  eastern  counties,  the  conditions  improved, 
and  over  the  kingdom  as  a whole  the  succeeding  fortnight  was 
the  finest  and  driest  experienced  since  the  middle  of  August. 
On  two  occasions,  however,  a decided  break  occurred  locally, 
thunderstorms  and  heavy  rain  being  experienced  along  the 
south  coast  of  England  on  the  10th,  and  in  and  around  the 
Thames  Valley  on  the  17th.  On  the  2nd  or  3rd  of  the  month 
the  thermometer  rose  to  70“  or  a little  above  it  at  several  places 
in  eastern,  central,  and  south-eastern  England,  but  as  a rule, 
the  wind  during  the  fine  spell  blew  from  some  northerly 
quarter,  so  that  the  air  was  decidedly  cool  for  the  time  of  year. 
After  the  middle  of  September  the  weather  again  broke  up, 
and  although  the  temperatures  recorded  during  the  next  fort- 
night were  equal  to,  or  a trifie  above  the  average,  the  country 
generally  was  visited  by  frequent  thunderstorms,  accompanied 
in  many  instances  by  very  heavy  falls  of  rain.  On  the  23rd 
and  24th  amounts  exceeding  an  inch  and  a half  were  recorded 
in  many  parts  of  England  and  Wales,  the  fall  on  the  former 
day  amounting  to  1'9  in.  at  Belvoir  Castle  and  to  3'4  ins.  at 
Castle  Bytham,  in  Lincolnshire.  Almost  equally  large  quantities 
were  experienced  in  many  western  and  southern  districts  on 
the  27th  and  28th,  more  than  2 ins.  being  recorded  in  some 
parts  of  South  Wales  and  North  Devon. 
October  was  unsettled  throughout,  and  often  very  stormy, 
the  wind  rising  on  many  bccasTdh^to  fhe^force  of  a strong  gale 
