26
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CLIMATE.
The maximum monthly temperature was attained in the months of July and August, and the minimum monthly temperature was recorded in the month of January.
The following table compiled from the monthly reports of the Director of the Observatory gives further details in regard to the meteorological conditions which prevailed during the year :-
WIND.
TEMPERATURE.
MONTH.
HUMI-
DITY.
SUN- RAIN-
SHINE.
FALL.
Average of
Average of
daily Max.
daily Min.
Meau.
Direction.
Force.
%
Hours.
Inches.
Miles per hour
January,
64.9
55'4
59.5
72
185-2
0-120
E by N
13.8
February,
68.1
58.5
62.6
69
207-5
0.200
E
13-9
March,
67-0
60-3
63.2
29-7
3.755 E by N
116
April,
75-2
67-8
70-7
86
112.4
1.905
E
14.8
May,
80-8
71.8
73.6.
83
148.0
7.705
E by S.
128
June,
85.0
76.0
79-8
83
162.1
19-640 SE by E
99
July,
85.9
77-9
81.1
82
147.4
7.225
SSW
10-9
August,
86.0 77-2
80-8
83
172'6
27.640
E by S
13-2
September,
85-0
76.3
80-2
81
161-3
9-770
E
11.5
October,
80-1
73:3
76.5
74
191-2
2.005
E by N
14.1
November,
74-0
64.6
68.8
62
187.3
0.215
ENE
13-1
December,
66.1
55.7
60.7
62
201.7
0-230 ENE
10.6
The highest temperature recorded was 91.1° F. on June 26th, and the lowest was 44-8° F. on December 24th.
It is interesting to note that it was only in the month of July that the pre- vailing wind had not some East in it.
The total Rainfall for the year was 80-41 inches as compared with 93.66 inches in the previous year.
The wettest month was August with 27'64 inches of rain; the driest was January when only 0.12 inch of rain fell.
The greatest amount of rain which fell on any one day was 11.135 inches on August 25th, while no rain fell on 221 days of the year. The relative humidity of the atmosphere averaged over 80 per cent. for seven months of the year.
The average daily amount of sunshine throughout the year was 52 hours and on only 31 days was no sunshine recorded.
The following Table shows the fluctuations in the rainfall during the past twenty years:
Inches.
Inches.
1885,.
.108.92
1895,
45.83
1886,..
69-17
1896,
71.78
1887,
66.29
1897
..100-03
1888,..
..104.58
1898.
57.02
1889,....
.119.72
1899,
72.70
1890,.
70.93
1900,
73.73
1891,
..117.12
1901,
55.78
,
1892,... 1893, 1894,.
90.97
1902,
97.50
99.95
1903,
93.66
.104-25
1904,,
80.41
Average,...... 95-19
Average,...... 74.84
In my Annual Report for 1899 I showed that the average rainfall during the decade ending that year was eleven and a half inches less than the average rainfall during the preceding decade. In 1902 I showed that the average rainfall had fallen more than sixteen and a half inches during the decade ending that year below the rainfall for the previous decade, and we now see that the average deficiency amounts to nearly twenty and a half inches when the past decade is compared with the immediately preceding one. This is a matter of serious moment in connection with the question of the water supply of the Colony, and indicates moreover a progressive change in our climatic conditions generally.