262 The Weather during the Agricultural Year , 1904-1905 
Shortly after the beginning of August a gradual deterioration 
in the weather took place, and before long it became evident 
that the best part of the summer had gone. With the 
exception, in fact, of a brief rally between about the 11th and 
14th, the remainder of the season was extremely changeable, 
with occasional thunderstorms and heavy rains in most districts, 
and with an almost entire absence of high summer temperatures. 
The heaviest falls of rain occurred — ( a ) on the 15th, when 
severe thunderstorms in Devon and Somerset were accompanied 
by between in. and 3^ in. of rain around the mouth of the Exe, 
and by as much as 4 in. at Starcross ; (5) on the 22nd, when 
a heavy downpour was experienced in North Wales ; (c) on 
the 24th and 25th, when a considerable fall occurred in Wales, 
and a still heavier fall in Cos. Dublin and Wicklow, where 
serious floods occurred ; and (d) on the 27tli, in the south of 
England, and on the 28th, over nearly the whole country, the 
fall on the latter date varying between 1 in. and in. in 
many places, and amounting to about If in. at Bettws-y-Coed. 
In all the western and southern districts the wind in August 
was often very strong from the westward, and at places on the 
coast it occasionally blew with the force of a gale. 
For the summer, as a whole, the mean temperature was 
above the average, the excess being slight in most districts, but 
rather large in the east and north-east. The season was warmer 
than in either of the three preceding years, but in all but the 
eastern districts it was cooler than in 1900 or 1901, and much 
cooler than in 1899. The total rainfall of the summer differed, 
as a rule, but little from the average, but showed a rather large 
excess in the southern counties, and a rather large deficiency in 
the east of England, where the season was drier than in either 
of the three years 1902-1904. The duration of bright sunshine 
was slightly less than the average in the south, and considerably 
less in the south-western and Channel Islands districts. In 
other parts of the country there was an excess — small in the 
midlands, but large over the northern districts. For the entire 
summer the north-west of England received, on an average, 
about an hour’s more sunshine per day than the normal, while 
the north-eastern counties received nearly an hour and a 
quarter more. 
The Autumn of 1905. 
The weather of the autumn was, as a rule, fair, cold, and 
quiet, the gales experienced being less numerous than in many 
recent years, and, with one or two exceptions, of little severity. 
One of the most striking features in the meteorology of the 
season was the absence of anything like summer warmth in the 
month of September, when a reminiscence of the expiring 
summer is so frequently experienced. Another point of interest 
