Atmospheric Changes – The lowest recorded temperature.
Frost and Thaw. After an intense frost, a thaw, with rain, set in at the commencement of the year and in the low lands near St. Leonards, as well as the Priory valley at Hastings, breaking up a portion of the Hastings and Ashford railway, and causing several landslips from the cliffs at West Marina. The preceding cold. In the Hastings News of January 4th, appeared the following communication from Mr. J. C. Savery, of 27 Marina:-
“Sir, - Until last week the probability of the temperature in England descending ten degrees below zero was looked upon as very slight. In some old tables there was a notice of a similar depression, but it had occurred in the days of imperfect instruments, and was viewed as the result of such imperfection. But Christmas Day, 1860 saw the mercury descend still lower, and will be remembered by the present generation as the coldest day of which we have any record. As it will, doubtless, interest many of your readers to compare the different points of cold which have been recorded in The Times, I have arranged some in the order of intensity of cold, and from this it will be seen that the area of greater cold was in the north Midland counties, but its influence extended over the whole of England, somewhat diminishing in intensity as it approached the southern coast. I also send you a comparison of the readings at Beeston, Scarboro’ and Torquay, with three stations of our society, and it will be perceived that we have escaped, as usual, from the great depression of other places; in fact, the cold has not been so great here as was recorded in February, 1855. The Beeston readings may be taken as the type of the Midland temperature. The thermometer at Torquay was uniformly lower than here until the 24th, when it suddenly rose to 32 degrees – two lower than our Fairlight station, and on the 22nd it was eight degrees colder than our more favoured locality. The causes of this immunity from extremes of cold I will endeavour to explain, but as I fear I have already almost exceeded your limits, I must defer it to a future period.
Greatest cold at
Mufield 15.0 Scarborough 16 Brigg 12.9 Fairlight 20 Beeston 8.3 High Wickham 21 Hartlepool 5.0 Marina, St Leonards 24 Wallingford 0.0 (and probably all equally sheltered situations) Birmingham 1.0 London 8.0 continued over
