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13
ature was higher than usual. There were, however, periods of
exceptional cold in May and December, and owing chiefly to these
the year as a whole was somewhat cooler than its two predecessors.
The frost on the morning of May 17 was by far the sharpest experienced
at Hampstead so late in the spring since records were begun.
In the screen the thermometer fell to 29.5 deg., and on the grass to
13.8 deg., the latter figure being as many as 5.2 deg. lower than any
registered during the previous winter. So far as can be ascertained,
this incidence of the keenest frost within six weeks of midsummer—a
phenomenon which was by no means confined to Hampstead—is unique
in the meteorological archives of England.
A long spell of hard weather in December reached its climax
just before Christinas. Early on the 23rd the temperature on the
ground sank to 10.2 deg., a point last equalled or under-passed in
February, 1929.
The summer, though a short one, was notably hot while it lasted.
Between June 22nd and August 22nd the sheltered thermometer rose
to 80 deg. or higher on 15 days: ou.side the period limited by those
dates 70 deg. was attained on only seven occasions. From June 1 to
August 31st, the mean temperature was 62.5 deg., normal being 60.1
deg. The corresponding value for 1934 was 61.9 deg., and for 1933,
63.6 deg. No three consecutive summers since 1857-1859 had maintained
so high a general level of warmth as those of 1933-1935 at
Greenwich Observatory, and in all probability the same holds true for
Hampstead.
The extreme readings of the thermometers during the year
were:—
Maximum in the screen, 86.1 deg., on August 22nd.
Minimum in the screen, 21.1 deg., on December 23rd.
Minimum on the grass, 10.2 deg., on December 23rd.
Largely on account of an exceptionally wet autumn, the rainfall
of 1935 was greater than in any year since 1928. It amounted to
28.03 in., which, though exceeding the 1910-1934 average by only 0.37
in., is about 1½ in. more than the computed normal for the summit of