MR. A. W. PRESTON’S METEOROLOGICAL NOTES. 93 
and chilly character, but during the latter half there was 
much sunshine, although sometimes accompanied by morning 
and evening fogs. Mean temperature was 1.2 below the 
average, and the thermometer only exceeded 70 degrees on 
one day. 
October. 
This was a very fine month, with almost cloudless sunshine 
on many days. Following so splendid a summer this was 
more than could have been expected, and a rainy autumn 
would have surprised nobody. Mean temperature was 1.8 
above the average, and the rainfall less than half the usual 
October total. On some days there were morning and evening 
fogs, and there was an unusually sharp frost, for so early in 
the season, on the morning of the 15th, the screened 
thermometer falling to 29.4. 
November. 
Down to the 21st great mildness prevailed, the temperature 
exceeding 50 degrees daily. The latter part of this period 
was, however, accompanied by wet fogs, which made atmos- 
pheric conditions somewhat uncomfortable. An abrupt 
change to mid- winter occurred on the 21st. The mean 
temperature of the week ending the 28th was as low as 32.6 
degrees, or more than 11 degrees below the November 
average, and on the 24th the screened thermometer fell to 
23 degrees, which is the lowest November reading since 1890. 
Heavy falls of snow occurred, accompanied by gales and 
rough winds from the west and north-west, and the country 
was enveloped in a white mantle more like January than 
November. The amount of snow and intensity of frost 
here were, however, much less than in places in the Midlands 
and North of England, where the amount of snow was 
sufficient to impede railway traffic. 
December. 
The first fortnight was very rainy and unsettled, over 
two inches of rain being registered by the 15th. A large 
anticyclone in the third week, which enveloped the whole 
