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

  • India. Sanitary Commissioner.
Date:
[1898]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

    19/526 (page 3)
    The rainfall of the month was above the normal over the south and west of the Peninsula, but elsewhere the weather was unusually dry, and the rainfall was more or less below the normal over the whole of extra-Tropical India. The deficiency was very large in Assam, and in Cachar the month’s rainfall was only-|th of the average. The chief periods of rainfall during the month were :—the 5th to the 7th, when showers were received in Kashmir, the Punjab Hills and the North Punjab, the 12th and 13th, when thundershowers fell in Bengal, Assam and Burma, the 17th to 19th, when thunderstorms gave moderate to heavy rain to Bengal, Assam, Burma and Southern India, and the 25th to the 28th, when the greater part of the Peninsula obtained frequent showers. Hardly any rain fell in Arakan and practically none over the Punjab plains and the central parts of the country* May.—The weather during May was generally drier and finer than usual, but a cyclone which passed from the Bay into Arakan between the 4th and nth gave very unsettled weather to Tenasserim and Lower Burma. The month was consequently charac¬ terised by higher temperature than usual over the whole of India, with the exception of Lower and Central Burma, Upper Assam, the west of the North-Western Provinces and of the Punjab and Lower Sind. The excess was large over the western desert, Berar and the west of the Central Provinces, West Bengal and the Surma Valley of Assam. The day temperatures were above the normal except in Upper Assam, Lower and Central Burma, Lower Sind and the greater part of the Punjab, in which regions the dav temper¬ ature was depressed by frequent showers* The highest maxima of the month were gene¬ rally recorded in the North-West and between the 1st and the 10th, when readings of between 1150 and 1230 were registered. At the same time also very high temperatures were recorded at the Madras coast stations. The mean minimum temperature of the month was generally lower than usual over Northern India and higher than usual over the remainder of India. A cool period prevailed from the 12th to the 22nd over a large part «of North-West and Central India. The mean pressure of the Indian area was 0*009 below the normal. In consequence of the high temperature prevailing the humidity was low except in Upper Assam, Burma, the Circars and the Indus Valley where, as mentioned above, the temperature was low and there were frequent showers. The sky was more cloudy than usual over the Bay Islands, Lower Burma, and in parts of the Punjab, Rajputana, the Central Provinces, Mysore and the North-West Hill districts. Elsewhere the sky was unusually clear, more especially so in South Madras and parts of Bengal. There was considerable delay in the establishment of the monsoon, so that with the exception of the heavy rainfall which fell in Burma during the cyclonic storm of the first week of the month, most of the rainfall occurred during dust and thunderstorms. The chief periods of rainfall were the 1st to the 5th, when Southern India obtained light to moderate rain; the 6th to the 12th, when Burma had heavy and Bengal light to moderate rain from the cyclone ; the 12th to the 20th, when Upper India and Kashmir received thundershowers, and the 25th to the 31st, when Burma, North-East India and Southern India received showers. The returns for the whole month showed that the greater part of Burma obtained more rain than usual, and that the Punjab, North Bombay, Baluchistan, Central India and Eastern Rajputana had somewhat more rain than the usual small normal of the month, but over the remainder of India the rainfall was short. This was ■especially the case in the Surma division of Assam, where the rainfall relatively to the average was very scanty, and in Malabar, where the setting in of the monsoon was ■delayed* June.—The temperature conditions of this month were largely determined by irregu¬ larity in the distribution of rainfall caused by the delay in the establishment of the monsoon, the relative weakness of the Bombay current, the unusually rapid advance of both ■currents towards Upper India, and by the break in the rains, which commenced in the North-West on the 19th, extended over the whole of India by the 25th, and lasted until the 27th. As a consequence of these abnormal conditions of rainfall the mean temperature of the month was in excess except in South and Central Bengal, Orissa, the Circars, Chota Nagpur, Bihar and the greater part of the North-Western Provinces. The excess was large and more than 2° in amount over the Deccan, but was greatest and between 30 and 70 in amount over Sind, Rajputana and the Punjab. The mean maximum temper¬ ature was above the normal over the whole of Burma and India with the exception of West and Central Bengal, Chota Nagpur, Bihar, the North-Western Provinces, Kathiawar, the South Deccan and Mysore. The hottest period was between the 1st and 12th, when Jaccbabad reported a maximum of 1220 and Mooltan of H7°*5. The mean minimum tem¬ peratures were also above the normal over Burma and India] with the exception of South- B 2