1943'S RAINFALL

A VERY WET PERIOD

With recollections of the winter and spring, when it rained almost incest santly for five months on end, many people, no doubt, will look back on 1943 as a very wet year, in spite of the lack of rain experienced during the last four weeks. They will be right, but if they also think it was the wettest year on record they will be wrong. The year as a whole was ■certainly considerably wetter than usual, but it was by no means a record. One has only to go back a couple of years, to 1941, to find a wetter year. Last year's rainfall, as measured at Kelburn, totalled 57.66 inches, as against the annual average for Wellington of 42.91 inches. More than two-thirds of the year's total of 57 2-3 inches fell during the wet period from the beginning of June until the end of October, just over 40 inches of rain being ' recorded during those five months. " The wettest year that Wellington has ever had was 1863, with 70.65 inches of rain. In 1941 the fall totalled 63.41 inches, so ■■ 1943 was some way off championship honours. During the first five months of last year the rainfall was below the average, although February was wetter than usual. In June the deluge began. On 23 days out of that month's 30 it rained, just over 10 inches being recorded. July followed comparatively modestly with 51 inches, and August with nearly 7. Jupiter Pluvius then warmed up to his job again, and September produced over 9|- inches of rain, and October just over 8 incb.es> making a total of just over 40 inches for the five months, very nearly the average rainfall for the whole year. November and December behaved normally as regards rain, except that nearly all of December's 3 inches fell in one hit at the beginning of the month. During the last four weeks of the year there was practically a drought. ;.. The following table gives the rainfall for each month last year, together with the averages of previous years:—* 1943 Rainfall Averag* in inches.

January ....... 2.87 2.91 February ...... 4.35 2.93 ' March 55 2.85 April 1.48 3.48 May 3.22 4.16 June 10.03 4.19 July 5.55 4.87 . August 6.81 . 4.18 September .... 9.65 3.45 " October * 8.06 3.62 November .... 1.97 3.13 December ..... 3.12 .3.16 Year 57.66 42.91 -