THE WEATHER.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18889, 3 January 1927, Page 4

THE WEATHER.

WORK AT OBSERVATORY. RAINFALL RECORDS. The Magnetic Observatory with the passing of 1926 has completed a quarter of a century of meterologieal observation in this City. During that time valuable records have been obtained, and more and more during recent years have been referred to by local body engineers, importing firms, and many others.

The total rainfall figures of 23.846 incites for the year show a decrease of 2.157 inches from the average of 26.003 inches for the 25 years just completed, according to the observations made during the past year by the Director, Mr H. F. Skey, and his assistant, Mr H. F. Baird.

On considering the figures for _ individual months, striking dissimilarities are evident: for example, while November, 1926, is the wettest November on record at the Observatory, there has been only one June more dry than that of 1926. Of course ; for most purposes, consideration of the figures for the individual months gives the closest idea of conditions; however for some purposes consecutive monthly and seasonal values .are of paramount interest. Below will be found tables in which the rainfall figures are set out in seasons, and t'o r that parr of the year up to the cud of each month. For the purposes of ihe season figures it is necessary to commence with the December figures for 1925. It will be seen from tiiese tables that as the year advanced tho deficiencies for successive seasons became greater until the spring, when a considerable increase above normal was recorded. Hie winter figures were as much as 53. per cent, below the averago iVu- that Reason; however, a dry winter is a matter more for jubilation than for regret. Although the total rainfall lr>w. tlit) number of days on which rain fell is unusually large, in fact, not since 1918 have 'there been so many rainy days in a year. March and July, each with 8, had the least number of rainy days, while May, with 20, had the most. The records of the Observatory for tho period they cover show that during that time there has been .no calendar month without some rainy days. February, 1908, with 2 rainy days, has the least number for any month, likewise it has the lowest monthly total fall of 0.042 inches. 1903, with 113. had the least number of rainy days, wiiile 1918, with 155, had the most. 1917 had 152 such days, 1926, with 149, being next greatest. The wind records show that there has been an increase in both S.W. and calm weather. The number of N.E. winds was far below average. In June there were as many as 17 calm mornings, a feature which is reflected in the fact that 26 frosts were recorded in that month also.

Some frosts occurred rather early in the autumn and were all the less welcome because of the late frosts oi the previous November; despite this bad beginning, autumn became mild, so mild, in fact, that normal November conditions prevailed in April, when the mean temperature was 2.6 degrees above the average for that month. In summing up, the outstanding features appear to be that the winter months were very dry, and had an unusually large number of frosts —though not extremely severe ones, while the spring months were very wet, and somewhat below average temperature.

The following table sets out the rainfall up to the end of each month for the year and for 1926: the third column shows the 1926 figures as percentage of the equivalent mean year figures:— Mean year. 1926. • Month. Inches. per cent. Jan. .. 2.366 1.666 70 Feb. .. 4.048 4.458 110 Mar. .. 6.078 5.691 93 Apr. . .. 8.028 6.479 81 May .. 10.706 9.618 89 June .. 13.260 10.821 79 July .. 15.964 11.679 78 Aug. .. 17.676 12.838 73 Sept. ... 19.719 18.466 08 Oot. .. 21.709 16.308 75 Nov. .. 23.483 20.293 86 Dec. .. 26.003 28.848 92

«> BOWLER'S DEATH. * (PRESS ASSOCIATION TEUOBAU.) AUCKLAND, December 31. The well-known Auckland bowler who expired yesterday, on the Parakai bowling green at Helensville was Mr George Thomas Oxley, aged sixty-two. of Herne Bay, formerly of Northcote, of which he was town clerk, retiring in 1919.

Rainfall. -The ' dfttailed ieurea for the years 102S and 1920 are as follows 1925. 1926. Rainy Rainy Month. Inches. days. Inches. days. Jan. . 2.184 7 1.666 14 Feb. . 0.269 8 2.792 12 Mar. . 1.126 6 1.233 8 Apr. . 6.252 9 0.788 10 May . 2.117 14 3.139 20 June . 4.301 2 0.903 10 July . 3.981 15 1.158 8 Aug. . 5.909 19 1.159 15 Sept. . 3.084 13 0.631 9 Oct. . 1.665 7 2.839 16 Nov. . 2.415 12 3.985 15 Dec. . 1.028 7 3.553 12 Totals .. 33.400 133 23.816 149