London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Kingston upon Thames 1951

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kingston-upon-Thames]

This page requires JavaScript

23
The foregoing tables show the details for this station
together with comparisons for the preceding two years. It
may be noted that the total solids deposited for the year
1950 compared with 1951 vary by less than half a ton. The
respective quarterly totals for the two years varied considerably,
there being a heavy increase in the first quarter of
1951, probably due to the abnormally high rain-fall of 5.68"
in February 1951. The middle two quarters show only slight
variation.. In the last quarter of 1951 there was a heavy
reduction compared with the corresponding quarter of 1950
viz:- 49.55 tons against 72.00 tons, a decrease all the
more surprising in view of the fact that the rain-fall in
November, 1951 was the heaviest monthly rain-fall (5.94")
recorded since observations began.

The following table covers three specific months and is included to demonstrate how unwise it may be to draw definite conclusions from isolated monthly data.

DepositRainWind Reading Applicable
November 195021.405.2027
February 195141.205.6851
November 195121.545.9449

The deposit at station "A" for February 1951 was the
second highest ever recorded, being 41.20 tons per square mile.
There was no simple explanation for this abnormally high
deposit. Throughout the year the deposit of insoluble solids
exceeded the deposit of soluble solids, the respective totals
for the year being in the ratio of about 2 to 1. This was to
be expected in view of the proximity of this station to
potential sources of heavy pollution.

TIFFIN GIRLS' SCHOOL - Station "B".

1951Deposit in Tons per sq. mileWind DirectionRainfall in Inches
Insoluble SolidsSoluble SolidsTotal SolidsNo. of ObservationsNo. of times S.E.-S.W.
January4.98.613.5*93422.83*
February5.811.617.4*84514.97*
March5.98.414.3*93212.72*
April7.86.514.3*90272.52*
May5.86.912.7*93201.90
June6.85.111.990270.86
July6.67*313.9*93271.09
August3.57.210.793672.52*
September4.160 610.790492.57*
October5.244.259.4993600.72
November3.458. 6312.0890495.13*
December2.755.878.6293601.89
Totals62.6486.95149.5929.72
Average 19515.227.2412.472.48
Average Jul-Dec.19514.276.6410.912.32
Average Jul-Dec.19505.279.7114.982.28

* Above monthly averages of rainfall and deposit.