THE WEATHER AND TEE CROPS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 10259, 30 January 1894, Page 3

THE WEATHER AND TEE CROPS.

GUST, . Jan. 29. This morning a fine rain set in at halfpast eleven, followed by a hailstorm from the north-west. The damsgs done is not expected to be serious. It has now cleared up. ASHBURTON, Jan. 29. A thunderstorm passed over various parts of this district on Sunday afternoon, followed by a heavy downpour of rain at night. It is showery’again to-day, and farmers are despairing of ever completing harvest operations.

Our Lyttelton correspondent writes that the weather in port yesterday forenoon was of a most unseasonable description, tho air having a decidedly midwinter keenness about it. Daring the forenoon the wind came away from the south-west, and shortly after noon a heavy hailstorm, set in, calling greatcoats, umbrellas and other winter requisites into active commission. The recent rains have levelled the heavy crops growing on the Taieiri plain, and they will be extremely difficult to out. Very heavy rain fall in South Canterbury on Sunday evening and till well on to midnight. Yesterday was fine again, with a local shower now and then. On Saturday the Pleasant Point district was visited by a hailstorm, when stones as large as cherries fell. In the Geraldine district the farmers are still labouring under great disadvantage in gathering in their crops. Saturday morning was beautifully fine, with every appearance of its continuing eo, but later in the day the wind changed to the southwest, and a thunderstorm passed over the district, accompanied by a heavy fall of hail and rain. Yesterday (Monday) morning was cloudy, and - rain again fell in showers np'fco the : time our despatch left. Our- Sheffield correspondent writes:— The weather since the new year has been most trying, and the last week has bean no exception. Pine weather for about two days a week has been the shearing time experience at Dalethorpa for the last month. Saturday promised fine until noou, when it suddenly changed to a tropical downpour, with thunder. Under the hills, hailstones fell and whitened the ground. Sunday,. fine, again until evening, when there was heavy rain and much colder weather. . Monday, still broken weather, sunshine, hail _ and thunder all in a few hours. A quantity of grain is in stock in the district, and the rest fast coming on. The outlook is far from encouraging. SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS. The severest thunderstorm experienced in North Canterbury passed over the district at midday yesterday. Tho storm was seen to be gathering in the west at about II a.m., and an hour later it was directly over Rangiora. There were actually two, storm centres, and for half an hour the lightning and thunder were incessant, the latter following the flashes immediately, proving tho nearness of the storm. The thunder peals were deafening, the reverbsrations shaking the houses like an earthquake and cracking the glass in windows. At about twenty-five minutes to one o’clock two of the loudest peals occurred, and the* lightning which preceded one of them struck a high poplar tree opposite a house in the southern portion of tho borough, occupied by Mr H. Frost and family. The shock from the electric discharge wrecked one of the windows ia front of the house completely, even to splintering up the frame,- and the .'glass in other windows was shattered. No ■ injury was done inside the house, but the occupants were, of course, greatly alarmed. The lightning, before it became earthed, played some strange pranks. Striking the top of the tree and running down one side, it stripped off the leaves and soma bark. Apparently a portion of the fluid entered the earth at the root of tbe tree, while the remainder' spread out on either side of it along a fence consisting of plain and barbed wire and wire netting covered in some places with gorso, the fence being stapled' to posts and a row of poplar trees. The electric current heated the wire aud sot fire to about ten or twelve yards of the gorse. In some places the wire was fused, and about ten yards of a No. 8 fencing wire has completely disappeared. The poets were split and staples drawn, and at one end of the fence where the wire terminated a portion of the electric fluid entered the earth, ploughing a hole ia tbe soil. The other end of the fence terminates at a tree, and the current arriving at the end of the wire which was embedded in the trunk, ripped off a strip of wood and bark to reach the earth. Tho current, before arriving at this point, was obstructed by the termination of the wires at the gateway, and evidently it passed down the tree which formed a support for the gate to a spreading bar in the earth under the gate. This bar, a piece of 4 by 3 scantling, was thrown out of its bed, and the soil broken up some distance on each side of it. During the early part of the storm there was a dead calm, and then rain and hail fell iu torrents for about half an hour. The hailstorm appeared to he at its worst along the south bank of the river Ashley, the stones here being an inch in diameter. The storm was not very severe at Amberley, and _ did not reach below the Waimakariri to the south. The temperature fell very remarkably, the thermometer registering about ten degrees above freeKSg point at 1 p-m. Considerable damage must have been done to the crops in the line of the storm. Last evening the weather was cloudy, threatening local showers. The thunderstorm in , the northern district on Saturday was very _ severe at Mount Thomas, and, also at’Waikari. In the former locality the rose very rapidly,' and a man in attempting to cross one was swept from his horse and almost drowned, a wire fence saving him. At Waikari rain and hail almost ruined the gardens, the fall for twenty minutes being phenomenal. Our Kaiapoi correspondent writes:—A very severe thunderstorm passed over Kaiapoi between twelve and one o’clock yesterday. The atmosphere was some degrees colder after tna storm. The prospects for the crops are very unfavourable; some of the cut ones are said to be turning black with constant exposure. The very warm weather which has prevailed has brought on the turnip crops in the Palmerston district very rapidly (eayo the Daily Times), and experience considerable difficulty in getting men to undertake tho work of thinning the roots. Owing to the excessively wet season, the crops in the Walkouaiti district are in a very backward condition, and are also, speaking generally, exceptionally poor. In the Palmerston district, which has not been visited by so much rain, both the oat and wheat fields look much better, there being some very heavy crops to be seen, especially at Goodwood, Bushy Park, and some farms in the. Shag Valley. In tho Biueakin district the,haymaking operations hove been interfered with a good deal by bad weather, and in a number of cases the bay has been completely spoiled. Although the oat and wheat-crops in the district are, like those in the other places .previously mentioned, ia a backward condition, yet there are a number of good heavy-looking crops ia different localities in the district.