XIV 
REPORT OF THE 
August and April have this year drawn away from their 
respective second and third in the neck and neck race for 
wettest and driest months. The cumulative totals from 1841 
now stand at, August, 155*19 inches; October^ 152*55; July, 
150*60. For driest we must handicap to a 30 day month, 
which gives April, 90*17; March, 90*75 (actually, 93,78); and 
February, 91*13 (actually, 85*91). A single year may reverse 
the order of the latter set, and the exchange of the 1897 July 
and August falls would have reversed the former. If the 
relationship previously noted between rainfall and sunspots is 
continued, we may expect wetter Julys and Augusts, and drier 
Octobers during the next 3 or 4 years. 
Floods of eight feet and over were more frequent, being 
recorded on February 9, 10, 11, 26, 27; March 18, 19, 20; 
December 8, 9, 17, 18. Ten feet five inches was touched on 
February 10th. Comparing the tables from up river with the 
self-recording flood gauge at York, the data based on the two 
previous years’ returns seem to be confirmed. We thus get 
that it seems to require 22 hours for floods to come down the 
Nidd from Pateley Bridge (on 9 observations, against 22 hours 
on 7); 20b from Middleham-on-the-Ure (40, against 20 on 28) ; 
and 22 from Richmond-on-Swale (19, against 21 hours on 10 
observations). Until recording instruments are placed at the 
higher stations it seems useless to attempt closen analysis of 
the returns. But these are enough to show what advantage 
would accrue by timely warnings. 
A uroras showed a further diminution, being recorded on nine 
nights in the earlier months against ten last year, eleven and 
twenty-three in the preceding. The monthly numbers were 2, 
1, 4, 2. Observations for these and for Clear Days ceased 
with July. These latter were as usual tested by the visibility 
of the West Riding Hills from Feversham Terrace, Bootham 
Stray. There was a considerable decrease on the whole, but 
May was unusually clear. 
The Gala Day Gale, June 16th, which ruined the flower 
tents and their contents, will long be recalled as one of the 
most destructive summer gales ever experienced in the district, 
if not unprecedented in living memory. 
