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air pressure. The variation of the temperature of January from the mean
temperature was inconsiderable. The temperature was at the majority of the
stations in defect, more especially at Sagar Island and False Point, where it was
upwards of 1° below the average. The month of February was characterized
by abnormally low temperature. The means for the month were only very
slightly in excess of those for January. The defect varied from 3ˇ2° at Chitta-
gong to 5ˇ3° at Berhampur. Bihar was at this time the area of lowest tem-
perature in the province. The lowest temperatures of the month were recorded
between the 10th and 17th. There are reasons for believing that the middle
of February, which marks the termination of the cold-weather and the com-
mencement of the dry hot-weather, is accompanied by considerable atmospheric
disturbance and by rapid and large variations in the elements of meteorological
observations. The absolute range of temperature during the month of Febru-
ary was also excessive. It was greatest at Akyab, where it amounted to 41.3°
and exceeded 40° at the two observing stations at Patna and Bardwan. The
mean temperature continued to be below the average during the next three
months. Bihar was during the whole period the area of the greatest defect of
temperature. The mean temperature of Bihar during the month of March was
25° below the average, 4ˇ5° during the month of April and 2ˇ5° in May,
During the first and second week of May the area of maximum day temper-
ature had advanced from the Deccan to Bihar and the most eastern portion
of the North-Western Provinces. It was during this period of maximum
temperature in Bihar that the cyclone which visited Madras and its neighbour-
hood on 18th to 23rd May was generated. The mean temperature of the
province during the months of June, July, and August, varied very slightly
from the average of previous years. The variation was greatest in Bihar,
this district now forming an area of relatively high temperature. The
abnormal features and distribution of the rains during this period account
for the increased temperature in Bihar. The excess averaged 2 degrees for this
period in Bihar. The temperature was in excess during the remainder of
of the year at the majority of stations. Bihar continued during the whole
of this period to be the region of highest temperature and of greatest
variation of temperature from the mean. The excess in September and
November in Bihar was 3ˇ5 degrees for each month and in the two remaining
months it was 1ˇ5 degrees. The returns of Ságur Island and Calcutta show
that the temperature at the north-west angle of the Bay was also excessive
during the latter months of the year, so that it formed a second and smaller area
of high temperature.
Winds.-The mean wind directions during the year were very nearly
normal. The northerly element of the dry-weather winds was more strongly
marked than usual. The most important feature in the wind velocity of the year
was the diminished velocity of lower air currents.* * * The diminished
velocity was most strongly marked in April and May, and towards the end
of the year. The tendency towards an approximate state of equilibrium of
atmospheric condition around and near the coast of the Bay of Bengal, which
often, if not always, precedes the formation of a cyclone, was very strongly
marked before the Madras May cyclone. * * * The returns of wind
velocity during the rainy season show that the lower air currents were less
vigorous than usual in Bihar and Central Bengal.* * * The termination
of the rains was followed by a more quiescent condition of the atmosphere
than usual.
Storms.-The sub-division of Tumlook was visited by two thunder-
storms of a very severe character during the first week of February.
A perfect hurricane, resembling a small cyclone, visited False Point and its
neighbourhood on the 8th April. The Madras cyclone of 18th May, as has
been already stated, extended to Bihar and Bengal on the 21st, 22nd, and
23rd, and was accompanied with stormy weather and heavy rainfall over
the greater part of the province; the termination of the south-west monsoon
was exceptionally free from stormy weather.
Rainfall-The rainfall during the dry-weather months, January to
May, was slightly in excess. Bihar and Orissa were the two districts in which
the excess was relatively greatest. The rainfall in Bengal during January was
very slightly above the average; February, was over the whole province