NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
239
Billericay.—Mr Burnett Tabrum, of "Norsey Manor," reports that
during 1897, 21.93 inches of rain were measured at Billericay. "The greatest
fall on any single day was June 8th, when we measured 1.16 inches. On the
day of the great storm, June 24th, we measured 32 hail and rain. Snow fell
on 13 days."
North of London.—For comparison with the above we give the registers
of our member, Mr. E.J. Bentley, at Cazenove Road, Stoke Newington, N., on
the Middlesex side of the Lea river. Mr. Bentley s total for 1897 was 27.93
inches. "The wettest month was September, when rain fell on 15 days, 3.57
inches. I registered for July exactly four inches, when rain fell only on five days
but on the 21st July, the day of a severe storm, I registered in two and a-half
hours, 3.18 inches, a very high record, and not reached in so short a time for
a number of years in the North of London. The driest month was October,
when only 0.55 inches fell in ten days. The number of days when rain fell
was 162."
Notes on Meteorology at Colchester.—"Meteorological readings have
been taken daily at the Borough Surveyor's Office, Stanwell Street, for the
past eleven years. On July 21st, 1897, there was a record flood, 1.76 inches of
rain falling in 24 hours ; 1.57 ins. in one hour only. The extreme Barometric
readings for 1897 were 30.80 on Nov. 20th, and 28.55 on March 3rd, the highest
and lowest readings recorded being 3090, June 9th, 1896, and 28.40, Nov. 11th,
1891. The hottest day for 1897 was June 24th, when the thermometer
rose to 91 degrees, the highest reading in previous years being 91 deg. on
July 21st, 1896. The coldest day in 1897 was Jan. 17th, when there were
12 deg. of frost registered, the coldest day recorded being in Feb., 1895, when
the thermometer dropped to zero. The period of longest drought in 1897
occurred in October and November (usually a rainy season) when only
14 points or one-seventh of an inch fell in five consecutive weeks and 29
points in six weeks. 2450 inches of rain fell, this being the wettest year recorded,
excepting 1892, when the rainfall reached 26.08ins. The driest year recorded
was 1887, with a rainfall of 17.27 ins. There were 139 days in which rain fell
in 1887. In 1894 there were 188 wet days, the greatest number recorded, and
in 1895 131 wet days, the least number recorded in one year."—From the Essex
County Standard, January 29th, 1898.
Storm in Essex in A.D. 1565.—We take the following from the
Essex County Chronicle of December 24th :—"The tornado which devastated
such a large area in central Essex last June appears from old records to have
been something like a repetition of a dreadful storm over much the same area
in 1565. In this year was published "a boke intituled 'The lamentation for
ye Towne of Chensford, Wrekell (Writtle), Sprynfyde, Ip(s)wich, and
Waltham,'" and "A ballett intituled 'The lamentation of Chensford,
Wrekell, Ip(s)wich, Spryngfylde, and Waltham.'" Stow (in his Annales,