There are records in Japan of where rain has reached 30 inches in
twenty-four hours; in India where it has reached 40 inches in
twenty-four hours.
The average rainfall in the United States is 35 inches.
There are certain places in India where the yearly rainfall averages
over 470 inches; whereas other regions of India show less than 4 inches.
The higher the clouds are in the air, the larger the drops of rain when
they reach the earth.
The heaviest annual rainfall recorded any place in the world is on the
Khasi Hills in Bengal, where it registered 600 inches. The major part of
this was in half of the year.
The greatest amount of rainfall is in the northwestern part of the
United States; the least amount is in Arizona, the southwestern part. In
some parts of Egypt and Arabia, the only moisture that is received there
is in the form of dew.
The average cloudiness of the earth has been estimated between 50 and 55
per cent. This amount slightly exceeds the cloud conditions of the
United States.
Unalaska has a record of extreme cloudiness for one whole month,
February, 1880.
Sir J. C. Ross, an Arctic explorer, recorded a shower of nearly an
hour’s duration on Christmas day, 1839, without a cloud in sight.
A similar record was made on June 30, 1877, at Vevay, Ind., where a
shower lasted for five minutes in a cloudless sky.
A fall of yellow snow was recorded at South Bethlehem, Pa., in 1889.
Examination showed this coloration to be due to the pollen of the pine
trees which had been blown into the atmosphere before the fall.
Another record of yellow rainfall was recorded at Lynchburg on March 21,
1879.
Golden snow was recorded at Peckoloh, Germany, in 1877.
Green and red snows have been observed during Arctic explorations, due
to a minute organism that was in the atmosphere.
When the temperature of the atmosphere is nearly 32° during a snow storm
and the wind is blowing, the flakes being damp and the snowfall heavy,
the flakes are apt to unite to form large masses of snow in the
atmosphere or air, which accounts for some of the following records:
At Chapston, Wales, in January, 1888, the snowflakes measured 3.6 inches
in length and 1.4 inches in breadth, and 1.3 inches in thickness. They
amounted to 2½ cubic inches of water when melted.
There are some remarkable instances of where hailstones have cemented
together, making large masses of ice. Some remarkable records of this
kind have been recorded in India.
In Morganstown, Va., on April 28, 1877, hailstones 2 inches long and 1½
inches in diameter fell.
The mean yearly pressure of the United States ranges between 30 and 30.1
inches when reduced by ordinary methods to sea level.
In Unalaska, January 21, 1879, the barometer reading of 27.70 inches was
recorded, and another low reading was made at Stykkisholm of 27.91
inches on February 1, 1877. On September 27, 1880, a ship on the China
Sea experienced a terrific typhoon, during which the barometer went down
in four hours from 29.64 to 27.04 inches.
The greatest temperature ranges recorded are in the interior of Siberia,
where at Yakutsk they recorded a range of 181.4°.
The most remarkable changes recorded within twenty-four hours have been
at Fort Maginnis, Mont., January 6, 1886, a fall of 56.40°; at Helena,
Mont., January 6, 1886, a fall of 55° in sixteen hours; at Florence,
Ariz., June 26, 1881, 65° rise. On the northern edge of the African
desert the temperature of the air rose to 127.4°.
The lowest single temperature in the world was recorded at Werchojansk,
Siberia, in January, 1885, when it was 90.4° below zero, while the
average temperature for the month at the same place was 63.9° below
zero.
Highest mean rainfall occurs in Sumatra, averaging about 130 inches; the
rainfall of 493.2 inches per year occurs at Cherapunji, Assam, India,
which is the largest in the world.
The lowest rainfall in the world occurs at Southeast California, West
Arizona, and the valley of lower Colorado, where the rainfall averages
less than 3 inches.
The most remarkable rainfall recorded in the United States for
twenty-four hours occurred at Alexandria, La., June 15, 1886, when the
rainfall reached the enormous amount of 21.4 inches. The most remarkable
rainfall recorded in the world occurred at Purneah, Bengal, September
13, 1879, when the rainfall reached the unprecedented amount of 35
inches in twenty-four hours.