HEAVY RAINFALL

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1935, Page 9

HEAVY RAINFALL

AMAZING INCREASE FOR YEAR. WEATHER RECORDS FOR AUGUST. For the eight completed months of 1935, almost 20 inches more rain has fallen at New Plymouth than for the corresponding periods of 1934 and 1933. Heavy rain was a conspicuous feature of the August wegther,. Records show that the month was one of the worst this year. The wind was tire strongest of any month, gale force being recorded on three days. The continued wet weather has resulted in saturation of the ground and there has been considerable flooding of farm paddocks in North Taranaki. Nevertheless, the jrass grew fairly freely in view of the conditions, though domestic gardening was a problem too great even for the hardiest. Temperatures were higher than usual and a feature of the month .was the almost complete absence of frosts, only two —light ones—being recorded. Rain fell on 22 days during the month, the aggregate being 8.20 inches. The heaviest day’s fall was on August 13 when 1.30 inches was recorded. So far this year 56.99 inches have been recorded, compared with 38.75 for the eight months of 1933 and 37.52 for 1934. August’s fall was second only to February in volume, 9.47 inches being recorded in the “months of the floods.” It is remarkable, however, that the rainfall for the winter months of June, July and August did not show a substantial increase on the corresponding figures’’ for the two previous years, being 22.90 compared with 18.15 and 16.83 inches respectively. ;

The highest maximum temperature, 58.3 degrees, was recorded on August 23. The lowest minimum was 35 degrees on August 31 and the mean temperature was 50.6 degrees. The lowest reading on the grass was 29.7 degrees on August 3 and 31 and the mean minimum on .the grass was 41.3 degrees. Although the mean temperature is higher than for the past two years, bright sunshine for the month was much below the average of 172 hours, being only 136.1 hours.