The Winter of 1893 - 4 . 
177 
that in some localities from which reports are received, either 
unofficially or at irregular intervals, this crucial degree of cold 
was exceeded. At Worksop, in Nottinghamshire, for example, 
a carefully verified thermometer in a standard screen registered a 
minimum of four degrees below zero, or thirty-six degrees of frost. 
The only other frosts of any importance during the past winter were 
observed respectively at the beginning of December, at the end of 
January, and in the fourth week of February, the thermometer on 
the first and last of these occasions falling to 20° or less in many 
parts of England. 
With respect to the temperature of the season as a whole, we see 
from the table that while the day readings were above the average 
over the whole of England, the night values were far less high, 
an actual deficiency of nocturnal warmth being reported in the 
eastern, southern, and south-western counties. The mean tempera- 
ture, as derived from both day and night readings, was in excess of 
the average in all but the south-western districts, the difference 
from the normal being greatest over the north-western counties, 
where the south-westerly winds blew more strongly and continu- 
ously than in other parts of England. In the eastern and southern 
districts, where the effects of the large storm systems in the 
north were sometimes neutralised by anti-cyclones, which spread 
northwards from the southern parts of Europe, the mean tempera- 
ture was not much in excess of the average, while in our south- 
western counties there was a slight deficit. 
The rainfall statistics given in the table show very clearly that 
the number of days was in excess of the normal in all districts, and 
especially so in the midland and north-western counties. With the 
exception, however, of the last-mentioned district, the aggregate 
amount of precipitation was not large, and in the eastern counties 
it was considerably short of the average. So far, therefore, as 
England was concerned, frequency rather than abundance was the 
main feature in the rainfall of the season. Farther north, and 
especially in the West of Scotland, the quantity was unusually heavy, 
and was mingled in several instances with hail, snow, or sleet. 
The sunshine records for the winter were unusually good. In 
the intervals which occurred between the departure of one of the 
northern cyclones and the arrival of the next the weather frequently 
remained fine for several hours together, the result being that the 
aggregate amount of bright sunshine was in excess of the average 
in all parts of England. The largest excess was observed over the 
eastern and southern counties. In the former district the average 
daily amount in the winter time, as deduced from records extending 
over ten years, is about an hour and three-quarters. Last winter 
there was a mean daily proportion of rather over two hours and a 
half, or three-quarters of an hour more than usual. In the southern 
counties the average daily allowance is a little under two hours ; 
last season the proportion was rather over two hours and a half, 
practically the same as in the eastern counties, and half an hour per 
day in excess of the average. An examination of the Greenwich 
VOL. V. T. S. — 17 N 
