414 NOTES----ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
reading being 91 degrees on June 24th, 1898, and 91 degrees on July 21st, 1896
The heat throughout the month of September was also exceptional, 83
degrees in the shade being registered as late as September, 18th, 1898,
also a record heat for the time of the year. The coldest day was February
21st, when 19 degrees was registered, or 13 degrees of frost, the greatest cold
recorded being in February, 1895, when the thermometer went down to
zero.
The highest and lowest barometic readings for the year 1898 are
respectively 3077 on January 24th, and 28.65 on November 25th, the highest
and lowest recorded 30.90, June 9th, 1896, and 28-40 Nov. 11th, 1891.
In 1898, 18.12 inches of rain fell during the whole year, making the
dryest year on record, with the exception of 1887, when only 1725 inches
fell, but if we take the rainfall for twelve months, commencing in September,
1897, we get the phenomenally low rainfall for a year of 1503, which is a
record. The wettest year was 1892, with 26.68 inches. The period of
longest drought in 1898 occurred in August and September, as only about
3/4-inch fell in nine consecutive weeks, while no rain fell between August 30th
and September 19th. There were only 128 wet days in 1898, the lowest
number ever recorded, the greatest number being 188 in 1894, and there were
only 121 wet days between September, 1897, and September, 1898. The
greatest rainfall in 24 hours occurred on December 6th, when .76 inches fell,
the heaviest fall recorded being 1.76 inches on June 22nd, 1897."
Fingringhoe.—Mr. Thomas B. Grubb communicates the following
summary of the Rainfall and Temperature at Fingringhoe, four miles S.E.
of Colchester, during 1898 (see E N. ante p. 238 for the records for 1897) : —
Highest shade temperature, 84 degrees, on September 9th. Lowest
ditto, 24 degrees, on February 21st and March 6. Greatest rainfall in
24 hours, 0.55, on October 30th. Warmest month, August. Coldest month,
March. There were 15 nights in March on which the thermometer on the
screen fell below freezing point.