INTRODUCTION. 
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more frequent rains along the immediate coast than in the eastern half of 
the State, or in the mountains, or in the State at large. 
The fairest month, throughout the State, is October, and the greatest 
cloudiness is found in February ; both these features being quite marked. 
And of the seasons, in all the divisions, autumn shows most fair weather, 
and winter the greatest prevalence of clouds ; although rains are a little 
more frequent in summer, and as much so in spring. So that these two 
characters, cloudiness and raininess, are not necessarily proportional to 
each 4 other. 
The humidity of the atmosphere in this State does not often become 
palpable in the form of fog. An entire day of fog is of rare occurrence 
in any part of North Carolina. Quite a number of the stations record 
no fogs at all, or only for a fraction of one day in three years. Along the 
larger water courses, especially in the deep mountain valleys, morning 
fogs are quite frequent in the latter part of summer, and during the 
autumn months; in some sections, as at Franklin, Murphy, &c., half the 
mornings for a month in some years may rise foggy, but the mists lift 
before 10 o’clock. In the cismontane sections fogs occur about as fre- 
quently in winter as in autumn, but the total fogginess, averaged for the 
region, amounts to only about two days in the year. 
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