Lakes Guides, topics |
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| rain gauges, Cumbria | ||||
| county:- | Cumbria | |||
| also see:- |  weather stations, Cumbria |
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| How Much Rain |
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| The English talk about the weather; fair enough, it's always changing and unexpected.
In Westmorland and Cumberland the rain is important; we get a lot of it. |
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 BUK05.jpg |
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| Nowadays there are weather stations whose data is collated by the Meteorological Office
from all over the country, and the seas around. You can have your own weather station
in your garden, only moderately expensive, and it reports to your home computer. These
use a tipping cup mechanism to measure the rain, which needs little attention, except
to log the data. Earlier rain gauges had to be read and emptied regularly; not a light
task if the rain gauge is on the top of a mountain. |
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| evidence:- | old text:- Martineau 1855 item:- rain gauge |
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| source data:- | Guide book, A Complete Guide to the English Lakes, by Harriet
Martineau, published by John Garnett, Windermere, Westmorland,
and by Whittaker and Co, London, 1855; published 1855-76. goto source Page 58:- "... Fairfield? That excursion is safe, not over fatiguing, practicable for a summer day, and presenting scenery as characteristic as can be found. Let it be Fairfield." goto sourcePage 62:- "..." "Still further on, when the sheep are all left behind, he may see a hawk perched upon a great boulder. He will see it take flight when he comes near, and cleave the air below him, and hang above the woods,- to the infinite terror, as he knows, of many a small creature there, and then whirl away to some distant part of the park. Perhaps a heavy buzzard may rise, flapping, from its nest on the moor, or pounce from a crag in the direction of any water-birds that may be about the springs and pools in the hills. There is no other sound, unless it be the hum of the gnats in the hot sunshine. There is an aged man in the district, however, who hears more than this, and sees more than people below would, perhaps, imagine. An old shepherd has the charge of four rain gauges which are set up on four ridges,- desolate, misty spots, sometimes below and often above the clouds. He visits each once a month, and notes down what these guages (sic) record; and when the tall old man, with his staff, passes out of sight into the cloud, or among the cresting rocks, it is a striking thought that science has set up a tabernacle in these wildernesses, and found a priest among the shepherds. That old man has seen and heard wonderful things:- has trod upon rainbows, and been waited upon by a dim retinue of spectral mists. He has seen the hail and the lightnings go forth as from under his hand, and has stood in the sunshine, listening to the thunder growling, and the tempest bursting beneath his feet." |
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| BUK05.jpg |  |
weather station, Haresceugh, NY60974288 -- Rain gauge. (photo 23.4.2011) | ||
| BUK06.jpg |  |
weather station, Haresceugh, NY60974288 -- Rain gauge. (photo 23.4.2011) | ||
| BZB36.jpg |  |
weather station, Mallerstang (2), Aisgill Moor, SD77879633 -- (photo 12.8.2013) | ||
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| references:- |
Giles, Bill: 1990: Story of Weather: HMSO:: ISBN 0 11 400355 6 Hemans, G W &Hassard, E: 1866: On the Future Water Supply of London::: study for the supply of water to London from The Lakes Meteorological Office: 1939 (3rd edn): Weather Map, an Introduction to Modern Meteorology: HMSO (London) Miller, John Fletcher: 1847: Report on the Fall of Rain in the Lake Districts of Cumberland and Westmoreland:(Whitehaven, Cumberland) Pedgley, David: 1979: Mountain Weather: Cicerone Press (Milnthorpe, Cumbria):: ISBN 0 902363 22 0 Roth, Gunter D &Yates, E M (translator): 1981 (translation): Collins Guide to the Weather: Collins (London):: ISBN 0 00 219010 9 |
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