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the rate of less than 0.004 in. an hour, the year's fall was spread over
545.7 hours, or about 3¼ weeks. The monthly durations varied from
86.1 hours in January to 13.1 hours in May. The wettest day of the
year was September 20th, with 1.03 in. of rain—the first daily measurement
in excess of one inch since August 1st, 1932.
The mean temperature of 1936 was 48.5 deg.—a figure 0.5 deg.
below the 1910-1934 average. March, June and August were
decidedly warm, and February, April and October cold—April exceptionally
so. None of the remaining six months showed a noteworthy
departure from the normal. On April 23rd the screened thermometer
fell to 26 deg., this being the lowest value for so late in the spring
since regular observations were started in 1910.
Appended are the extreme temperatures for the year:—
Maximum in the screen, 84.2 deg., on June 21st.
Maximum in the sun's rays, 144.2 deg., on May 15th.
Minimum in the screen, 19.5 deg., on February 4th.
Minimum on the grass, 11.1 deg., on February 5th.
The screen-minimum reading of 19.5 deg. on February 4th had
not been equalled or under-passed since March, 1931.
Snow was observed on twenty-one days during the year, the
ground being covered at 9 a.m. on six occasions. A fall of five inches
(undrifted) during the night of January 16.17th, though closely
rivalled on January 26-27th, 1935, ranked, so far as the upper part of
the Heath was concerned, as the heaviest since the great snowstorm
of Christmas night and Boxing Day in 1927.
Hail was noted on five days, and thunderstorms (or thunder
alone) on seventeen—all of the latter between May 1st and October
31st. Fog, in varying degrees of density, prevailed at 9 a.m. on 25
days, and was observed at some other hour on an additional 31
occasions, making 56 days in all. Ground-frost was registered on the
unusually large number of 167 nights; 28 of these occurred in January,
28 in February, 27 in December, and 23 in April—a remarkably high
frequency for that month. June 17th, with 14.3 hours' sunshine, was
the brightest day of the year.
Tempestuous weather characterised the last quarter of 1936. The
most violent gale was that of December 14th, when the speed of the
wind approached 70 miles an hour during squalls."