A SHARP FALL RECORDED

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21827, 6 July 1936, Page 8

A SHARP FALL RECORDED

Barometer Reaches Low Level

HAIL STORMS PREDICTED

In the 24 hours between 10 o’clock on Saturday evening and the same hour last evening the barometric pressure showed a drop of more than an inch, and reached a level which may well be found to be a record for the last 40 years at least. The official figures from the observatory were not available last evening, and thus it was not possible to have a check on those recorded by the barograph in “The Press” office. At 3.30 on Sunday afternoon the observatory figure was given as 28.75. From then on the figure recorded by “The Press” dropped quickly until 10 o’clock last evening to a level which, by correction with the observatory’s figure, gave a reading of 28.45 inches. Early in May this year a record low level was claimed when the barometer read 28.63 inches, or .03 inches lower than that recorded in 1902. . In other places in the Dominion very low levels were also recorded. The official report gives the pressure at Awarua, the Bluff station, as 28.50 and at the Akaroa, lighthouse as 28.65. The Canterbury Agricultural College at Lincoln gave the reading at 10.30 p.m. as 28.60, and the director, Dr. F. W. Hilgendorf, said that, without checking up on former records, it was about a new low level record. One barometer in the city gave a reading of 28.40 inches at 10 o’clock. It was about 10.30 p.m. when the barograph started to show the end of the fall, and the pressure remained steady at 28.70 inches by the instruments in “The Press” 1 for about an hour. Later the rise began and at midnight the reading was 28.77. It is thus not surprising to find that the official forecast for the weather to-day holds promise for snow on the high country and hail in places. The wind predicted is north-west to west at first, to be followed by southerlies all over the Dominion by the evening and reaching gale force. At midnight in Christchurch a strong north-westerly wind was blowing.