XIV. 
REPORT ON THE RAINFALL IN HERTFORDSHIRE IN 1883. 
Ey the Rev. C. W. Harvey, M.A., E.R.Met.Soc. 
Read at Hertford, 25th April , 1884. 
Ottr rainfall stations remain the same in number as last year, 
i.e. 29 ; the gauges at work, however, are increased by two, and 
now number 33, the two latest additions being a third gauge at . 
Rothamsted, where all meteorological work is known to be most 
thoroughly attended to, and a second at Eanhams Hall, in the 
Upper Lea District. It will be observed that this station lies on 
the watershed of the Lea and the Ash, having a gauge in each 
district. Two old stations, Eushey Heath and Bushey Station, do 
not appear, the records being incomplete. On the other hand, the 
two new stations mentioned in my last report, Tring and Earley, 
have been introduced. The former of these supplies a want long 
felt and frequently expressed, i.e. an observer in the Thame 
district. M uch, however, generally wants more; and so I again 
call attention to the absence of the Brent, the Chess, and the Stort 
districts from our reports for lack of observers. 
I have to thank very much those observers who have so kindly 
furnished me with the daily record of the fall at their stations. 
This has enabled me to enter into the particulars of some of the 
chief falls, and to show how far, and to what extent, their in¬ 
fluence was felt in the several parts of the county. In this, how¬ 
ever, I have endeavoured to confine myself within reasonable limits. 
I open my report with the welcome intelligence that for the first 
time since 1874 the rainfall has been below the mean (1870-79), 
and that to the extent of D08 inch. I trust that after a series of 
wet years, the year 1883 may be the commencement of a drier 
series.*' 
Through the kindness of the compilers of the Rainfall Tables 
for Wilts, Norfolk, and Essex, I am again able to compare the 
rainfall in those counties with our own.f In Wilts 57 stations give 
a mean fall of 3LOO inches; in Norfolk, 29 stations give a mean 
fall of 27'53 inches ; in Essex, 25 stations give a mean fall of 22'87 
inches. In each case these figures point to a diminution in the 
rainfall during the past year; in Wilts the difference is nearly 12 
inches, in Norfolk nearly 5 inches, in Essex nearly 4 inches, while 
in our own county it is a little over 3^ inches. In point of dry¬ 
ness the four counties range in the same order as in 1882—Essex, 
Herts, Norfolk, Wilts. 
* Compared with the mean of a long series of years, 1883 was a decidedly wet 
year, though it does not appear to be so when compared with the average of the 
wet period of 1870-79 .—Ed. 
f Each of these tables gives not only the monthly totals but the daily fall at 
every station. I wish it were possible to publish the daily fall for our own county. 
