A DRY SPELL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 5, 7 January 1944, Page 4

A DRY SPELL

NOT REAL DROUGHT

OFFICIAL VIEWPOINT

Many people are talking about the drought which Wellington is enjoying or suffering from, according to point of view. But officially and meteorologically speaking Wellington is not having a real drought, only a partial one. An absolute drought the weather men define as a period of 15 days without any measurable rainfall, a fortnight with an extra day thrown in for luck apparently. A partial drought is a period of -29 days (four weeks with a similar extra day) during which the total rainfall does not exceed 29 points, or an average of a point a day. Wellington's dry spell started on December 4 after three inches of rain on the two previous days. On the 14th one point of rain fell, on the 18th four points, on the 24th four, and on January 2 five points, with a trace on the 15th .and on the 26th, but traces do not count. Hence there has been no period of 15 days with no rain at all—no absolute drought. But from December 4 to yesterday, January 6, inclusive, a period of 34 days, there have fallen only 14 points of rain, which is less than an average of one a day, so during that period there has been a partial drought. PREVIOUS DROUGHTS. Wellington periodically in its l meteorological history has not infrequently had absolute and partial ! droughts. In 1928, for instance, there was an absolute drought lasting 31 days, a period between January 14 and February 13, when there was absolutely no rain at all. Again in 1934. the year of Wellington's last famous [summer, there was an absolute drought of 20 days, and a partial drought of 46 days lasted from the end of November until January, 1935. Even if "the period of drizzle or rain" forecast for tomorrow morning eventuates, the amount of rain may not be sufficient to break the partial ! drought. In the meantime horticulturists will continue to call the present dry spell a drought, without qualifying it with the word "partial," meteorological parlance notwithstanding, and will continue using their hoses.