Observations on the climate of Penzance and the district of the Land's End in Cornwall : with an appendix containing meteorological tables, and a catalogue of the rarer indigenous plants. Read before the Penwith Agricultural Society, and published by request of the members / By John Forbes.

  • Forbes, John, Sir, 1787-1861.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the climate of Penzance and the district of the Land's End in Cornwall : with an appendix containing meteorological tables, and a catalogue of the rarer indigenous plants. Read before the Penwith Agricultural Society, and published by request of the members / By John Forbes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The effect of the two different winds is so well known, that it is common to believe, when the wind is easterly, that there will be no rain; while, when it is in the opposite direction, however promising in other respects the sky may be, precautions against the probable irruption of western showers are seldom forgotten. The influence of particular winds in altering the temperature is still more important and remarkable: and were it not that the same effects are found in other parts of the country, and that the statements made in the beginning of this paper prove the con- trary, one might be induced to believe that the asser¬ tion of the superior equability of our temperature, so much insisted on in the preceding pages, has been hazarded without sufficient authority. It is, indeed, tiue, that owing to the nature of our situation pre¬ cluding, in a great measure, the disturbing influence of local causes, we receive the impressions brought by the different winds purer, and less modified, than in most other parts of the country; still, it will be found, that, in other parts, the variations of the ac¬ tual temperature are very much greater than ever they are observed in this district. It may be stated as a general fact, that the south and west winds are uniformly warm and soft, and the north and east winds uniformly cold and sharp. These un¬ varying effects on sensation are, as certainly, although in a lesser degree, indicated by the thermometer. In the wintei and spring months, the north and east w inds