SOME PECULIARITIES IN TPIE RAINFALL OF TEXAS. 55 
ocean, inducing on the coast almost insular climate, and on 
the other hand from elevated and woodless plateaus favor¬ 
able to the violent diurnal and monthly variations character¬ 
istic of a continental climate, such diversities of environment 
exercise in turn, through seasonal or accidental action, a 
dominating influence over the climatic elements of the whole 
or a great part of Texas. 
It thus occurs that the State includes within its limits ex¬ 
tensive areas where snow and ice are practically unknown, 
and others where prolonged and exceptionally severe 
“ Northers ” are accompanied by very low temperatures—far 
below zero. 
As regards rainfall, considerable sections of the State have 
less than an inch a month, and so belong to the arid regions, 
while other localities have more than an inch a week. The 
rainfall is likewise subject to such extreme variability that 
the amount in one section during a single month may be 
triple the average amount in other sections for the entire 
year. 
The importance of the phenomena of rain to a great agri¬ 
cultural domain such as Texas is scarcely second to that of 
temperature. It has been unfortunate for Texas in the past 
that rainfall observations have been few and far between. 
Indeed, apart from the records made by the Medical Depart¬ 
ment of the United States Army, at the various military 
posts, and those of the Signal Corps at its military telegraph 
and meteorological stations, other observations of rainfall 
are so widely separated and for such broken or brief periods 
that they by themselves would not give even a general idea 
of the amount of rain yearly or of its distribution over the 
State. The paucity of records other than those of the United 
States Army may be best summed up in the statement that 
there are only nine sets of continuous records by private 
parties covering five years, and not one of the nine points 
is situated outside of the eastern third of the State. 
Notwithstanding that rainfall is comparatively local, yet 
from quite an open network of stations, especially over a 
