THE WEATHER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7814, 5 June 1909, Page 2

THE WEATHER.

Exceptionally heavy rain commenced to fall on Friday evening and continued throughout the greater part of the night. • However, the morning broke fine, and the weather showed indications of clearing. . On Friday morning one point of rain was registered at the Domain weathor station, and two points fell during the day; while the register for last night was 1 inch 74 points., The river was m heavy flood this morning,, which indicates that the'fall of rain m the upper districts and on the ranges has been unusually heavy. A passenger from.. Christchurch by Friday night's late train states that the weather was fine m the city when he left, and the first signs of rain to be seen on the journey to Ashburton were at Rakaia. .".''■ Should the weather now take up, the rain will have accomplished a large amount of good, and although delaying the sowing of seed for a few days, it will facilitate ploughing operations and at the same time deeply penetrate the land already sown—which is considerable m area. Reports to hand show that rain has fallen generally all over the county. Contrary to expectation, there is an absence of snow on the front range of hills this morning, and judging by the volume of water m the Ashburton river '—it is stated to be the largest for several years—torrential rain must have fallen on Friday and during last night m the back country; and it is also evident that the snow m that locality has been melted by the north-west wind that prevailed on Thursday. After many weeks of beautifully fine weather (says our Methven correspondent), a change occurred on Friday morning, when rain commenced to fall early ,and has continued intermittently up to time of writing (4 p.m.), with every appearance of continuing. Whether Mr Wragge's pet disturbance "Buddo" is near at hand, .it is hard to say, but we are certainly getting a copious supply. - In consequence of the' mild weather which had prevailed up to the present, there is still an abundance of feed for stock which, generally, are m exceptionally good condition. 2.12 inches of rain fell at Winchmore last night, the fall for the 24 hours being the heaviest since October, 1904, when 2.88 inches were recorded m a similar time. The north branch of the Ashburton river is m heavy flood, adds lour correspondent. ; :"

The following observations were taken at Winehmore during the month of May: Rain fell on 7 days to a total measurement of .97 inches, the maximum fall occurring on the 10th withi .25 inches. Mr C. J. Le Cren, of "Cren Lea," Carew, reports,that the total rainfall during May was 1.24 inches, which fell on nine days, the maximum falls being .25 inches and .32 inches on the 10th t and 12th respectively.