RAINFALL IN CITY

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21715, 24 February 1936, Page 10

RAINFALL IN CITY

Comparison With Other Records

AN UNUSUALLY WET V FEBRUARY

The rainfall in the city on Thursday and Friday, which seemed to many people to be almost unprecedented in its severity, was actually far from being among the city's heaviest falls. In April, 1925, for instance, a fall of 4.7 inches was recorded for 24 hours, this being the largest fall for that period since 1905, when the rainfall records were first kept at the Magnetic Observatory. The heaviest fall for 24 hours during the rain of Thursday and Friday was 2.60 inches, and there have been several falls heavier than this.

The heaviest rainfalls for 24 hours in the city since 1905 are set out in the following table: —

Inches. March 30, 1909 .. .. 3.16 January 27, 1923 .. 3.28 May 7, 1923 .. .. 3.4 April 17, 1925 .. ..4.7

It will be noted from this table that although big floods occurred in Canterbury in 1923, the rainfall at the time in the city was not nearly as heavy as it was in 1925, when the results were not nearly so serious. The 1925 fall was the heaviest ever recorded for 24 hours in the city, and for the three days the rain fell the total was 5.62 inches, an amount not equalled in the records for a similar period.

Little River Floods When serious flooding occurred at Little River in May, 1934, the highest fall for 24 hours in the City was 2.19 inches. The day before this a total of 1.40 inches fell, and the total for the week (May 3 to May 9 inclusive) was 6.63 inches. This total is much greater than that for the week ended on February 22 this year, which was 3.67 inches. Other heavy falls in a week have been:—■ June 11-16, 1911, 5.99 inches; October 20-26, 1909, 5.71 inches. February this year, however, has the distinction of being unusual for at least two things besides its floods. The first thing is that it has already exceeded the average number of wet days for February. The average is eight, and already this year there have been 10 wet days. The second is that an unusually large-number of its days, 16 out of 22, have been overcast. If one or two heavy rains occur before the end of the month it may gain the distinction of being the wettest February on record.