240 
J. HOPKINSON-SOME RECENT STORMS 
snow on his way to Whitwell. It was several days before many 
of the roads were cleared of snow sufficiently for vehicular traffic 
to he resumed, and in some districts a snow-plough was used to 
cut a way through it. 
On Thursday the 15th very heavy rain fell and rapidly thawed 
the snow, causing floods on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at many 
places in the county. On Friday the Baldock Road at Royston 
was flooded, and cottages were inundated; on Friday night and 
Saturday morning the lower part of High Street, Watford, was 
flooded for about a hundred yards from the bridge over the Colne, 
the water being two feet deep in some places; at Bishop’s Stortford 
the whole of the Town Meads were under water, and the low-lying 
ground around Sawhridgeworth and Harlow was submerged for 
some days later; the River Lea overflowed its hanks, the meadows 
in the vicinity of the Chadwell Spring were under water, the 
Angel Mead near Ware and some of the houses in High Street 
were flooded, and lower down the valley so also were the Rye 
House Gardens, Roydon - Meads, Admiral’s Walk, and parts of 
St. Margaret’s, part of the road through Roydon Mead being four 
or five feet under water. All the locks on the Lea and Stort 
Navigation were thrown open in order to allow the water to get 
away as freely as possible. 
The Hailstorm and Flood of the 12 th of July , 1901.—The great 
Watford flood of this date seems to merit a fuller notice than is 
given of it in my meteorological reports on the year 1901 which 
have appeared in our ‘Transactions’ (pp. 152 and 162), where 
it might also he altogether overlooked. The rain which fell 
during that day was by no means exceptional in amount ; it is the 
intensity of the fall for a short period which is remarkable. 
The wettest day in Hertfordshire of which we have a record was 
the 12th of July, 1889, when the rainfall exceeded two inches and 
a half at eighteen stations in the county, was at least three inches 
at twelve of these, at least three inches and a half at four, and 
reached nearly four inches at two (3-85 ins. at Danesbury, Welwyn, 
and 3-91 ins. at Marden Hill, Tewin), but there is no record extant 
of any great intensity of that fall during a short period. 
On this recent occasion the fall exceeded half an inch at the 
following sixteen stations— 
in. in. 
Weston Park, Stevenage.0-53 Bridge House, Welwyn.1*10 
Datchworth Rectory ... ... 0*54 Rosebank, Berkhamsted ... 1*22 
Melbourne Street, Royston ... 0*57 Great Gaddesden Vicarage ... 1*30 
Therfield Rectory. ... 0*64 Danesbury, Welwyn .1*45 
The Grove, Kensworth.0*65 Rose Cottage, Berkhamsted ... 1*48 
Offside Cottage, Cowroast ... 0*72 Callipers, Chipperfield.1*68 
High Down, Hitchin .0*73 London Orphan Asylum, Watford 1*89 
Apsley Mills, Hemel Hempstead 1*01 St. Albans Road, Watford ... 1*98 
On the other hand, no rain fell at Hamels Park, Buntingford; 
Much Hadham; Bayfordbury, Hertford; Hertford Sewage Works; 
Fanhams Hall, Ware ; The Red House, Ware ; Stafford House, 
Broxbourne; Northacre, Nor thaw; and the Gas Works, New 
