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NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
Fingringhoe.—Mr. Thomas B. Grubb communicates the following
summary of the Rainfall and Mean Temperature at Fingringhoe for 1897,
taken each day at 6 p.m. :—
" Greatest rainfall in 24 hours 0.91 on Sept. 30th. Highest shade temperature
83 degrees on June 24th, lowest 22 degrees on January 18th. January, as usual,
was the coldest month and July the warmest, closely followed by August.
The rainfall from May 24th until the end of August was mostly in the form
of local showers, which varied greatly in amount even in adjoining parishes.
Fingringhoe missed all the heavier showers, and it seems to be one
of the driest spots in England. We had practically uninterrupted
drought from June 24th until August 25th, and from May Day until June 9th.
. . . . The rain and hailstorm of June 24th will be fresh in the memory
of every one. Here we had a few large lumps of ice, but not enough to do
much harm, but we had approaching 3/4 inch of rain in 15 to 20 minutes,
accompanied by a gale of wind, washing the root lands badly, and laying all
the stronger corn. . The general feature of the summer has
undoubtedly been somewhat frequent and very local thunder-showers, which
seemed to avoid some districts and come repeatedly to others. The county
will long have cause to remember the meteorology of the Queen's Diamond
Jubilee year for the two disasters it brought—viz., the hailstorm of Mid-
summer Day and the tidal wave and inundation of November 29th.""
Chelmsford.—Mr. F. Chancellor thus summarises his daily observation
of Rainfall at Chelmsford in 1897 :—
" The number of days upon which rain fell was 156. It is somewhat
curious, but I find that the average rainfall for the last 30 years is 2298,
exactly the rainfall for this year. The average number of days for the last
ten years upon which rain fell was 134"
1 A Report on the Tidal Wave of November 29th, 1897, will appear in the next part of
Essex Naturalist. Ed.