Annual report of the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India.

  • India. Sanitary Commissioner
Date:
[1904]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/336 (page 1)
    ANNUAL SANITARY REPORT FOR 1904. SECTION I. METEOROLOGY OF THE YEAR. i. The following report on the Meteorology of India has been kindly Summary of the meteorological furnished by the Meteologica] Department of the Government of India. phenomena of the year, During the first four days of January 1904 the weather was fine in all parts of India except the extreme south, where some showers were falling and the only important feature was the relatively high temperature which prevailed over the Bombay Deccan and the west of the Central Provinces. On the 5th con¬ ditions changed and a fortnight’s disturbed weather followed. These disturbed conditions lasted till the 19th. They were accompanied and followed by lower temperatures than usual, but from the 19th onward to the end of the month the weather was fairly settled. The fine weather of the second half of January continued during February, which month was singularly free from cold weather storms, though thunderstorms and hailstorms were unusually frequent over Bengal, Assam, Central India, the Central Provinces, Khandesh, Gujarat, Kathiawar, and Sind. In consequence of these conditions the mean temperature of January was generally in defect except in a broad band stretching from the Bombay coast north-eastward through the central parts of the country to the United Provinces, while in February it was generally in defect except over north¬ west India and the Gangetic Plain. The rainfall of January was heavier than usual over Sind, Baluchistan, the North-West Frontier Province and the west, central and submontane Punjab, and heavy snow fell in the mountain region to the west of the Indus and over parts of the Punjab Himalayas. Over the remainder of northern India as well as over central India the rainfall was short of the normal and over a considerable part of this area little or no rain fell. In Southern India, on the contrary, the weather was usually disturbed and the rainfall of the month was in large excess. In February rain was in excess of the normal over Assam, Bengal, the Central Provinces, Central India, Khandesh and North Bombay due to the unusual prevalence of thunderstorms, but elsewhere it was short of the average and over the greater part of the Peninsula and portions of the Punjab and of the United Provinces the month’s rainfall was small and unimportant. In March the weather over north-western, western and central India was more disturbed than usual—more particularly during the first ten days—and the rainfall over this area was in considerable to large excess of the normal. In north-east India there occurred a period of thunderstorms between the 3rd and the 19th, but the rainfall in this area and in Burma was lighter than usual, while in South India hardly any rain fell. Within the area of diminished rainfall in north-east India the mean temperature of the month was slightly higher than usual, but in South India as well as over the area of increased rainfall in north-western and central India and the head of the Peninsula, the mean temperature was lower than usual, more especially over the Indus Valley, north-west Rajputana and the upper Sub-Himalayas. [29sci B