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Meteorology.
Through the kindness of E. L. Hawke, Esq., M.A., F.R.A.S.,
F.R.Met.S., Secretary of the Royal Meterological Society and Hon.
Meteorologist to the Hampstead Scientific Society, I am able to submit
his report on meteorology in Hampstead during the year 1936, which
is based on records kept at that Society's Observatory on the top of
Hampstead Heath adjoining the White Stone Pond:—
"The year 1936 can best be summarised in a few words as
exceptionally dull, rather wet, and for the most part cool. Sunshine
was deficient in nine of the twelve months. The total duration
1,2392 hours, was short of the twenty-five year average by 239 hours
(nearly 40 minutes a day), and was the smallest since registration
was begun at the Observatory in 1910. Hitherto the lowest annual
total had been 1,262 hours, in 1932. September set up a new record
for lack of sun, and March, too, was notably cloudy. Relatively to
the normal, December was the brightest month, its 483 sunny hours
representing an excess of 37 per cent.
Rainfall during 1936 amounted to 27 63 ins. This is about 1½
ins. more than the computed true average for the summit of Hampstead Heath, although it is almost identical with the 1910-1934 average
derived from the records kept at the Observatory. That period, it
must be remembered, included a high proportion of very wet years.
The monthly totals for 1936 ranged from 461 ins. in January, which
appears to have been the most rainy since 1877 in Hampstead, to
0.45 ins. in August, which was the driest back to 1910, and probably
to 1899.
There were 186 days during 1936 on which the gauges yielded
measurable quantities of rain, snow, hail, or deposits from dew, rime
or wet fog. The normal number of such days is 181. According to
the trace of the hyetograph, which does not register precipitation at