XVI. 
REPORT OX THE RAINFALL IN HERTFORDSHIRE IN 1887. 
By John Hopkinson, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.E.Met.Soc. 
Read at Watford , 12 th April, 1889. 
[Reports on the Hainfall in Hertfordshire. have been contributed 
to the Society for eleven years,—for the four years 1876-79 by 
myself, and for the seven years 1880-86 by the Eev. C. W. Harvey. 
I have temporarily resumed the compilation of these reports owing 
to Mr. Harvey being unable to spare time to prepare those for 1887 
and 1888, and now present the report for the year 1887. 
I have thought it advisable to make a change in the sequence 
of the river-districts, which in this report is in conformity with 
the scheme followed in our ‘Flora of Hertfordshire/ where the 
river-basins, clearly distinguished on the coloured map accom¬ 
panying that work, are thus divided:— 
I. Ouse. 
1. Cam. 
2. Ivel. 
II. Thames. 
( 3. Thame. 
) 4. Colne. 
) 5. Erent. 
( 6. Lea. 
In this report I have included the rainfall at New Earnet, in 
the Lower Lea district, taken from Mr. Glaisher’s “ Eemarks on the 
Weather” in the Eegistrar General’s ‘Eeturns.’ With this ex¬ 
ception the only alteration from the previous year in the staff of 
observers is the addition of Mr. Edward Harrison of Watford, an 
observer from whom we had returns for 1876 to 1881. By my 
own removal from Watford to St. Albans we have one more gauge 
in the Yer district, and the above addition makes up for the absence 
of my gauge from the Colne district. We are still without an 
observer in the river-basin of the Erent. 
The number of stations from which the report for 1886 was 
drawn up was 26; for the present report there are by these 
additions 28, and from 20 of these I have returns of the daily 
rainfall. The number of gauges is 30. 
The rainfall in the year 1887 was very small, the mean for the 
county being only 19*73 inches. This is 9*27 ins. below the mean 
of the 10 years 1876-85, to which period the term “mean,” when 
not otherwise defined, will refer, and it is 6*62 ins. below the mean 
of the 40 years 1840-79 (26*35 ins A'). For a smaller rainfall than 
in 1887 we have to go back to the year 1864, when the mean fall 
in the county was 17*86 ins. The greatest recorded fall in the 
county was in the year 1852, when the mean was 37*59 ins., nearly 
double that of 1887. 
Particulars of the rainfall stations, and the monthly rainfall at 
each station, are given in the accompanying tables (Tables I and II, 
pp. 156, 157). 
* See “Rainfall in Hertfordshire, 1840-79,” by the Rev. C. W, Harvey, in 
‘Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc.,’Vol. I, pp. 151-158, where the mean for each 
decade is thus given:—1840-49, 25*82 ins.; 1850-59, 25-50 ins.; 1860-69, 
26*11 ins.; 1870-79, 27*97 ins. 
