ENGLAND & WALES
ANNUAL RAINFALL
GEORGE PHILIP & SON LTD.
(The figures show the annual rainfall in inches.)
For a succession of years it has, however, been observed that the rainfall of Hertfordshire is in excess of that of all the adjacent counties to the west and south. This is shown by the following comparative average rainfalls for 1905; viz.: Bedfordshire (23 stations), 20·47 ins.; Buckinghamshire (32 stations), 22·06 ins.; Middlesex, exclusive of London (49 stations), 22·26 ins.; and Hertfordshire (51 stations), 23·47 ins. Of the 104 stations exclusive of Hertfordshire, the combined mean rainfall is 21·6 inches; Hertfordshire thus showing an excess over the average rainfall in the adjoining counties of nearly two inches in actual amount.
As a whole, and in spite of the excess over its neighbour in the matter of rainfall, Hertford may be reckoned among the relatively dry counties; its average in 1905 being nearly four inches below that for England generally in the same year.
At Bennington there were recorded 1523 hours of bright sunshine during the year, and 54 absolutely sunless days. Throughout Great Britain as a whole there were 186 days in the same year on which a minimum of 0·005 inch of rain fell; all such days with that or a greater quantity of rain being officially known as rain-days. At Greenwich, where the total amount of rainfall was 23·024 inches, the rain-days numbered 161, and the wettest month was June when 4·323 inches of rain were registered. June was also the wettest month of the year in Hertfordshire, but the amount of rain was much less than at Greenwich, being only 3·46 inches.
As regards bright sunshine, the number of hours in England as a whole amounted to 1535, while in Kent the number reached 1667·8, and at Tunbridge Wells 1712·4 hours.
In respect to the number of wet days during the year in question Hertfordshire therefore occupied a very creditable position, although its record for sunshine was less satisfactory.