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Meteorologically Considered

 

Taking a period of ten years, and comparing the following inland watering-places, it will be seen that, on the whole, Harrogate stands well. If the reader will glance at the table of comparison, he will see that it is so. Its dryness, from this point of view, is therefore established. The calculations are taken from Symons' British Rainfall, giving the average annual rainfall and number of days on which 1/100in. or more of rain fell.

METEOROLOGICAL TABLE.

Rainfall and "Rainy Days," 1888 to 1897 inclusive.

From SYMONS' British Rainfall.

 

 

10 Years’

Average

Rainfall.

Inches

10 Years’

Average

Rainy

Days.

No.

 

 

Observers

Leamington

21.86

160

Burnitt, on the parade

Cheltenham

25.10

172.3

Kaye, Smelt, Tyner, and others

Great Malvern

25.41

153.8

Mander, Munn, Crump

Tunbridge Wells

28.38

168

Weston, Winton

HARROGATE

28.78

193

Wilson, Farrah, Dixon, Gledhill, Paul

Matlock Bath

29.51

Not given

Chadwick

Bath

31.46

157.6

Weston, Gilby, Institute

Clifton

32.66

176.5

Burder, Rintoul, Bridge, Sturge

Ilkley

34.81

168

Worfolk, Richardson

Buxton

48.6

214.2

Thresh, Beck, R Met Soc, and others

Means

30.65

173.7

 

 

 

 

Harrogate stands on a plateau 400 to 500 feet above the sea. This does not necessarily detract from its dryness.

Other considerations have to be taken into account, and Harrogate, fortunately, is happy in these. The rainfall in any locality is determined by its mountain­ous surroundings.

Hilly outposts of any place materially modify the rainfall, and affect the dryness of it, especially if their ridges run at right angles to the direction of the winds which generally bring the rain.

The Pennine Range, with its various spurs, on which stand Skipton, Ilkley, and Otley, forms an outer rampart to check the moisture-laden winds coming from the Irish Sea on the west. These winds, charged with invisible moisture, strike the spurs of the Pennine Range in their approach to Harrogate, more or less at right angles, and in doing so, they rise into a region of lower temperature, in proportion to the velocity with which they, travel, and the contained moisture is condensed and precipitated as rain on the tops of the hills and on the immediate ground of the lee side.

The air gets warmer by the act of falling on the lee side, and is necessarily drier. The south, south-west, and west winds are the rain-carrying ones in these parts, and having to pass over these mountain spurs, they thus exhaust their humidity to a great extent before they reach Harrogate. The rivers Wharfe and Aire are in this way fed by the expended efforts of moisture-laden winds passing over their watersheds, and Harrogate is left drier. Witness the respective rainfalls of Ilkley and Harrogate.

Absence of rivers and the geological formation of the subsoil also conduce to the general dryness of the atmosphere in Harrogate.

For the most part, the millstone grit overspreads Harrogate generally, but the Yoredale series prevails in Low Harrogate, and these are both of an absorbent nature in themselves, especially millstone grit, besides which the rocks in many places present their trun­cated edges upwards, and so act as conduits to lead the rainfall under the surface. And this they do in a marvellously short time.

 


 
 
 

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