The Weather of the Past Agricultural Year. 435 
July 10 continued unbroken until August 8 or 9, and in some 
scattered places for very much longer. At Exmouth there was 
no rain for twenty -nine days, and at Teignmouth for thirty 
days, while at South Hanningfield, Essex (a district in which 
the drought appears to have been very local), there, was none 
between July 20 and August 22, a period of thirty-four days. 
Towards the end of August the weather gradually broke up, 
and between the 29th and 31st sharp thunderstorms and heavy 
rains occurred in many parts of the country. The most general 
fall was reported on the coasts of Kent and Sussex, where the 
rains of the 30th and 31st amounted to between 1*5 in. and 
2*5 in., and sufficed (in spite of the previous dry weather) to 
swell the monthly total to an amount considerably in excess of 
the average. August produced very few warm days, but 
temperatures slightly above 80° were observed locally between 
the 2nd and 4th and the 28th and 30th, a reading as high as 
84° being recorded at Worksop on the 4th, and at Matfield, 
near Tonbridge, on the 28th. 
The mean temperature of the summer was below the 
average, the deficiency being greatest in the eastern and south- 
eastern counties. The rainfall of the season was exceptionally 
small. In the wettest district (the north-western) the total 
amount was little more than two-thirds, and over the country 
generally it was considerably less than half the average, and 
was much smaller than in any summer of the previous twenty 
years. The driest weather of all occurred in the south-west, 
where the total rainfall amounted to only 39 per cent, of 
the average. At Exmouth very little more than an inch fell 
in the period of 103 days, running from May 15 to August 25. 
The total duration of bright sunshine during the summer was 
everywhere small ; in the midland and north-eastern counties 
the mean daily allowance for the entire season was more than 
three-quarters of an hour below the average. 
The Autumn op 1913. 
An unusually cool summer was followed by one of the 
mildest autumns the country had experienced for many years, 
and at the close of November the appearance of vegetation in 
many parts of England showed no indication whatever of 
the early approach of winter. The mildness was due not so 
much to the presence of any very high temperatures as to 
the absence of low ones, and more especially to the warmth of 
the nights. Over a large portion in fact of central and southern 
England the season passed without any frost worthy of note, 
even upon the surface of the ground, an occurrence without 
precedent in autumnal records extending back for more than 
thirty years. 
[Continued on page 438.] 
