Vol 13 - Dumfriesshire & Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian ...

36 Meteorology.
June, when auti-cj^clonic weather prevailed, with very lig'ht winds
and abundance of sunshine, which largely contributed to the
warmth of the spring and early summer ; while January and
February were also unusually mild for winter months. From this
statement no one will be surprised to learn that the mean annual
temperature of 1896 is above the average, being 48-5 deg. This
has been exceeded only once during the last ten years, viz., in
1893, when it was 49'4 deg. It has ranged during these years
from 46 deg. to 49-4 deg., the average being 47*5 deg., so that
the past year has been 1 deg. above the average. This excess,
however, has been due, not so much to an unusual number of
warm days, as to the mildness uf the winter and spring months,
and to the limited number of very cold days and nights. To
illustrate this, it may be mentioned that the number of days on
which the maximum readings of the thermometer reached 70 deg.
and above was 42, fourteen of which occurred in May, fourteen in
June, nine in July, five in August, and three in September. In
1893 it was sixty-one, and in 1889 forty-six ; but these were
exceptional years ;
and the number in 1896 was i-ather above than
below the average. The number of nights on which the protected
thermometer fell to 32 degs. and under was 54, six of which
occurred in January, with an aggregate of 227 degs. of frost
seven in February with 23-4 degs. ; six in March with 13-G degs.
one in April with 2-3 degs. ; ten in October with 23-2 degs. ; ten
in November with 47*8 degs. ; and fourteen in December with
63"6 degs., showing 196*6 aggregate degs. of frost in all—spread
over 54 days. This contrasts strikingly with the report of the
previous year, when there were 100 days, with an aggregate of
640 degs. of frost. That, however, was an exceptional year, in
consequence of the extremely low temperature which characterised
the months of January and Febuary, the aggregate degs. of frost
in each of which exceeded those of the whole of 1896, and
amounted in the two months to 495 degs. The only year of the
past ten to be compared with 1896 in respect to the mildness of
the winter and spring months was 1889, which had 55 nig-hts of
frost, and an aggregate of 193 degs. But taking the mean of the
period, the average is about 78 nights and 360 degs.
Rainfall.—The amount of rainfall for 1896 was 33-93 in.,
which is short of the average by from two to three inches. The
number of days on which it fell was 196, on 26 of which, however,
the fall did not exceed one hundredth of an inch. The
;