[Report 1947] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow.

  • Glasgow (Scotland)
Date:
1947
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1947] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and periods of rain which were unfavourable to the harvest prospects and the production of food for the community at one of the most difficult periods in the nation’s history. From the latter part of January until the middle of March extremely hard frost accompanied by frequent snow falls, produced the coldest period during the past 50 years ; there were heavy falls on the 5th and 21st of February and again on the 10th, 13th and 16th of March with some sleet on the 18th, but by 21st March the snow had practically gone although most of the spring thereafter was cold. These severe conditions were associated with increased mortality, especially among old people as will be referred to in the next section of this report. The average temperature during February was 28-6°F. compared with 40-4°F. for the preceding year while the comparative figures for March were 33T°F. and 41-0°F. The lowest temperature recorded during the year was 8°F. in March, i.e., 24°F. of frost, while 9°F. was recorded in February. The highest temperature was 86°F. recorded in August, while the average temperature for that month, which was the warmest and driest August for half a century, was 64-3°F. compared with 56-5°F. for the same month in 1946. The average temperature over the whole year was 46-7°F. compared with 47-3°F. for the previous year and 48-6°F. for 1945. In November there was a very cold spell for three days, the 17th to 19th, followed by an exceptionally warm humid period in the latter three days of the week, 20th to 22nd November, which was responsible for very abnormal condensation. The total rainfall of 38-63 inches was slightly less than normal, but distribution over the year was most uneven. For instance, there were 5-28 inches of rain in November while there were 5-19 inches in April, which is usually the driest period of the year ; in August the rainfall was only 0-02 inches recorded in two days of the month. Altogether precipitation was recorded on 209 days which with the exception of 1941 is the lowest figure for many years. Apart from August there was a noticeable deficiency of sunshine the total number of hours of bright sunshine recorded being 1,086 compared with 1,220 for the previous year. The recording for August was 239 hours. 3