334 The Weather during the Agricultural Year , 1905-1906. 
t 
Mild dry weather continued throughout the latter half of the 
month, the wind being usually light from south-west or west, 
but calm for a few days after Christmas, when fog reappeared 
in many parts of England. 
At the close of December a cyclonic disturbance spread over 
these islands from the Atlantic and occasioned very strong 
winds from south-east, with heavy rain in all the southern 
districts. Later on the bad weather became more general, the 
wind being, as a rule, rather variable, but blowing with the 
force of a gale from the westward in the south on January 6. 
Between the 9th and 17th a strong breeze from the south- 
westward prevailed, with mild unsettled weather, heavy rain 
being experienced in the south-western district on the 12th, 
in Hampshire on the 16th, and at many western stations on 
the 17th. Thunderstorms occurred in the south on the 9th 
or 10th, and in some parts of North Wales and the north-west 
of England on the 13th, while snow was experienced on the 
16th or 17th at many places in the north. After January 18 
the wind got round to the north, and the weather became 
temporarily much colder, with sharp night frosts, and with 
snow showers in the north and east. In the closing week of 
January the wind returned to the westward, and the thermo- 
meter rose decidedly, the weather being much drier than in 
the earlier part of the month. 
February was, upon the whole, cold and changeable, with 
frequent showers of snow or sleet in nearly all parts of the 
kingdom. For the first few days the wind was in the north, 
and on the night of the 5th a very sharp frost was experienced 
over central England, the exposed thermometer falling to a 
minimum of 15° at Rauceby, and 17° at Oxford. During 
the remainder of the month the direction of the wind varied 
greatly, the only important exception occurring between the 
8th and 11th, when gales from between south-west and north- 
west were experienced over a large portion of the country. 
On the 8th a sharp thunderstorm travelled quickly from north- 
west to south-east across England, with squalls of hail or snow 
in many places. Heavy rain occurred in Cornwall and Devon- 
shire on the 22nd, and between this date and the 24th a sharp 
frost was experienced very generally, the temperatures recorded 
being in many places the lowest of the whole winter. 
For the season, as a whole, the mean temperature was 
above the average, the excess being slight in the south-west, 
but rather large over the midland, eastern, and north-eastern 
counties. In the midlands and in the Channel Islands, the 
total rainfall of the winter agreed very closely with the normal, 
and in the north-eastern district there was a deficiency, 
amounting to as much as 21 per cent. Other districts recorded 
