The Recent Dry Weather

Abstract

WITH reference to the recent remarkable weather, both at the commencement of the year and during September, it is worth while calling attention to the climatological period of about thirty-five years, which Prof. Brückner, of Berne, pointed out as existing relatively to the years or groups of years characterised by marked cold or heat, as mentioned in vol. xliii. p. 163 of NATURE. He therein indicated the years 1700, 1740, 1780, 1815, 1850, and 1880 as centres of cold periods, while the years 1720, 1760, 1795, 1830, 1860 (and now 1895) appear as centres of warm, dry periods. The coincidence for the present year is certainly remarkable, and merits attention as to the causes which underlie these periodic fluctuations of weather.