HAS WINTER COME ?

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4593, 1 August 1923, Page 3

HAS WINTER COME ?

THE GLOOM OF JUNE IN ENGLAND. ONE WARM DAY. The Overseas Daily Mail which is just to hand, says that June made a. bad start in England. On the first day only in Scotland was the temperature about normal for the time of year. Many places in South-East England had no sunshine at all. A Solihull (Warwickshire) correspondent has found on examining records of past weather, that from the year 1845 to 1905 there were 10 Mays with a temperature comparable to the average of last month. He has further discovered that each of those cold Mays was followed by a wet and cold summer. On the first Sunday in June one day of summer, sandwiched between cold and gloom, brought happy crowds into the open. The thermometer jumped 16 degrees in London from 53deg. to 69deg. Every known size, shape, and colour of motor-car seemed to be on the road, while motor-cycles and pedal bicycles manoevered for steering way. The Brighton and Portsmouth roads in the early afternoon were like the Strand during the rush hours. Then on the following day a gusty north wind succeeded the sunny warmth, the thermometer fell to 52deg., and then to 47deg., and fires had to be lighted again. The official explanation of the relapse is that a cold northerly current, drawn from Arctic regions, persisted over the United'Kingdom. Last year at this period the temperature was 73 degrees. The country does not seem at all June-like. Last year roses were flowering freely ; and two years ago were in full bloom everywhere. To-day scarcely a rose is to be seen except on warm walls. Snow fell in Paris.