NINE-DEGREES FROST TO-DAY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 160, 24 July 1937, Page 5

NINE-DEGREES FROST TO-DAY

Lower Recording Scale His Been Adopted VARIED INCIDENCE OFN® Another nine-degrees frost was ex^ plrienced in Hastings -this morning. This was equal to the most sevore this winter. The last frosts of sijnilar in- " tensity were recorded on July 8-, and when two nine-degrees frosts followed in Succession. Lawns and gardens wero covered with a heavy white mantle this morning^ while water in jugs and in the more exposed water pipes was frozen^ With the xanges aronnd the district heavily coated with snow,- i,t can.be taken for gxanted that fnrther severe frosts will follow during ihe next few days. - . An apparent inconsistency in the frost recordings in Hastings thia winter has been commented upon by many residents. The opinion is generally that the frosts are heavier than the recording shows. "What seems to be creating some confusion, however, is that the scale of readings has been altered, so that the recordings to-day are two degrees less than they would have been a year or so ago. Under the old reading, therefore,"thie morning 's frost would have been .one of 1.1 degrees, '

Mr H. Nelson Fowler, who Is in charge of the recording instrumenta at Cornwall Park, Hastings, explained to a. Herald-Tribune reporter this morning that there was no possibility of a mistake being made. There was a double check on the readings, and frequent teeting of the instruments showed them to be thoroughly accurate. The reading at Cornwall Park, he said, would provide a good average. * ' * Asked if the. surrounding trees at the park would he likely to have any effect on the readings, Mr Fowler said that, although the instrumenta were. a fair distance away from ihe trees, it was quite likely that tiie readings in the open would be greater than in the park and, on the other hand, it was also possible that a reading in the open in oue part of the town might he different from that in another part of the. town, as frost travellqd in wavee. These waves, Mr Fowler explained, were sometimes only a few inches wide and at other times iseveral feet dn extent. He instanced the case of a Hastings gardener who in a Tecent frost had had only two or three tomatoes in & long row ' *nipped. ' ' He replattted those that had been killed and, in a subsequent frost, others were killed and these fresh ones escaped entirely. Levels also had an effect npon the frost readings, he explained, as .the temperature altered considerably every few feet of altitade. The proximity of water also made a difference, and it was possible that the new lake at Cornwall Park would be influencing the readings. Mr Fowler recalled that the disastrous frost which brought ruin to the Hawke's Bay fruitgrowers last October was of the same intensity as this morning 's. It was only of nine degrees, but it happened to come just yrhen the fruit, was hudding. The .Wellington observatory was supposed to send an dnspector periodacally to adjust the instruments throughout the country, continued Mr Fowler, hut in the nine yeaTS he had been making the reports in Hastings an inspector had been here only once. He had to reset one of the thermometers every morning, and it sometimes took several hours to make adjustments to others when the instruments became damaged.