MR. A. W. PRESTON’S METEOROLOGICAL NOTES. 759 
outburst of heat for so early in the season. The shade 
temperature exceeded 80° on the 25th, 26th, 29th, and 30th. 
It is very rarely that the month of May gives four days with 
a shade maximum of 80° and upwards. In some years the 
thermometer does not even touch 70° throughout the month. 
A thunderstorm on the early morning of the 30th yielded a 
refreshing rain of about a quarter of an inch, but the total fall 
for the month was '60 ins. deficient. 
June. 
This was a very dry month, the total rainfall having been 
only ‘72 ins., or 1‘19 ins. below the average. There were but 
few hot days until the 16th, the maximum for that and the 
two succeeding days having been 81‘5°, 83T 0 , and 77‘4° 
respectively. No further reading of 80° was again recorded 
until August 30th. There was a great drop of temperature 
about midsummer. The strawberry crop was early and 
abundant. 
July. 
The month, though drier than the average, was chiefly 
remarkable for the deficiency of both temperature and sun- 
shine, and while all along the West of England and in Scotland 
great heat and an almost unparalleled drought prevailed, in 
Norfolk there was hardly a warm day, and, in the middle of 
the month, there were some heavy rains. The cause of this 
state of affairs was a very unusual distribution of atmospheric 
pressure, the barometer having been generally, almost through- 
out the summer, much higher to the west than to the east of 
the country. The mean temperature of the month, here, 
was 4° below the average, and the sunshine recorded was 
only about half the normal amount ; in fact, it was one of 
the most sunless Julys on record. The following figures show 
the great contrast in the amount of sunshine between the Julys 
of 1911, 1912, and 1913:— 
