METEOROLOGICAL.

Otaki Mail, 3 January 1919, Page 3

METEOROLOGICAL.

DECEMBER'S WEATHER. { Mr AV. B. Smith, of Ofaki. litis kindly | supplied us with the following interest- | ing metcorcflogical notes : The total | rainfall for December was 4.04 inches, j Rain fell on 10 days, the heaviest fall j for one day being 1.12 inches on the Sth. Last December the to_tal was only I 1.57 inches, and the average of the last fourteen Decembers was 2.58 inches. ! The temperature for the month was low. • On Christmas Eve there, was a considerable coating of snow on the Tararuas. Indeed the Christmas season this-year may be described as inclement, with the exception of a day or two of bright, seasonable ■sreurner. \j METEOROLOGY TOR THE PAST j YEAR. The rainfall in C*aki ior 1918 total- I ! led 43.57 incites. Ra\n fell on 204 days ! during the year. Thiiwas considerably I in excess of t-o avcragfc for the last 14 j years —that average being 39.56 'incites ! It was also .in excess oC the previous j year's fall, which was 41.19 inches. During the last 34 years there have I been only two wetter years, viz..,1912 i (44.2!) inches'! and 1907 (4S.oti inches). The fall during 191 S was well spread. There was no excessive fall, and no prolonged dry spell. The driest month was August i'l.(>2 inchest) and the wettest. April (5.66 inches), though June was nearly as wet (5>50 inches). The heaviest fall for one day was 2.04 inches, on February loth. The driest spell was in March, which had only eight days with Tain, and one of these days, the 28th. contributed 1.42 inches of the month's total of 2.04 inches. But for that one day's heavy rain March would have had only .62 inches of rain. Meteorologists say that the state of the soil as to suitability for cropping depends largely on the rainfall of the previous autumn —that the autumn fall influences the crops of the next season -much- more than immediately preceding or daring' the cropping season. On that reasoning the autumn of this year was well supplied with suitable rain, for April. May. and .Tuue had an aggregate of 15.42 inches, and if - July is added, 20.12 inches —not far short, for the lour months, of half the year's rainfall. The same four months of 1917 contributed well* oyer half of the total for thai year, so that farmers who do' much cropping ought, to some extent, be able to make deductions from comparisons of last year'j! and this [rear's crops as regards suitability of : _'_ ,-