Report on the phenological observations in the british isles from december, 1930, to november, 1931. no. 41

1931 was officially described as “wet and dull,” the emphasis is on the latter; yet it was the tenth successive year with excess of rain, the total being that of eleven average years. A new table gives for each of the thirteen districts the number of weeks showing “decided” and “excessive” divergences from the averages for temperature, rainfall and sunshine. Out of the 572 events thus possible for sunshine during the spring and summer months there were only five decidedly bright against 72 dull. December, 1930, and November, 1931 alone were much on the warm side; March and September were cold. There were no records of “excessive” warmth in spring and summer, but 12 of “cold.” Such short cold spells in spring threw the flower records back half a week, and although migrants reached our coasts to date, their progress inland was belated. Fig. 4, with its areas of earliness and lateness in flowering, shows only small and scattered cases of the former— covering but one‐tenth of our islands. Nearly half lay in northwest Ireland, with four days early, whilst Dartmoor fell 20 days behind its natural lateness. Slugs and weeds, as might be expected, caused exceptional trouble. Fig. 6a, showing the average advance of migrant arrivals for 16 years, adds to the value of the associated tables. Thanks to a second broadcast in March, 1931, the corps of observers slightly exceeded 600. More would be specially welcome in west Ireland and north Scotland. The tables are based on more than 17,000 records.