The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-03 00:00:00

THE WEATHER—T HE TEM-
PERATURE.
(From the Manchester Guardian.)

Since our last the weather has continued to increase
in severity, there being heavy falls of snow during
Tuesday night and Wednesday night, or rather
Thursday morning. The frost during Thursday
night was intense, and the temperature lower than
we have experienced in Manchester for a great num-
ber of years past. In the cold frosty weather of De-
cember last the temperature fell from 31 deg. on the
3d, to 20 deg. on the 6th ; and during the night of
Saturday, the 7th, or rather at an early hour of Sun-
day, the Bth, it reached its lowest point, 19 deg.
But the temperature during the last few days has
declined much more rapidly, and to a much lower
point. On Monday the lowest point was 33 deg.;
on Tuesday, 26 deg. ; on Wednesday, 23 deg.; on
Thursday evening, 13 deg. ; and yesterday morning
the mercury was as low as eight degrees of Fahrenheit,
or 24 deg._ below the freezing point.
As this temperature is Ise unusually low, as oc-
curring in this town, we have been careful to make
inquiries as to the circumstances under which it was
observed. Messrs. J. B. and J. Ronchetti have a
carefully graduated and tested thermometer, sus-
pended on a low wall, bounding a garden, at Higher
Ardwick, and not contiguous to any house; and at
midnight on Thursday this instrument indicated the
temperature to be 12 degrees. Struck with the low
point, Messrs. Ronchetti tried three other instru-
ments. They drove a piece of wood into the soil in
the mi l.lle of the garden, and hung these instruments
upon this wooden upright, at a height of about three
feet from the ground, and they all indicated the same
degree of temperature. At one o'clock yesterday
morning (an hour after midnight) they again looked
at all four instruments, and found them alike to in-
dicate 11 degrees; at two o'clock they found the
temperature 10 degrees ; and at three o'clock in
the morning they were again observed, and at
that hour they all indicated a temperature of nine
degrees. They were not again observed till an ad-
vanced hour in the morning; but, being all self-
registering, they were found alike to indicate, as the
lowest temperature attained, eight degrees. We un-
der:tsnd, that, in this respect, they agree with other
instruments in different parts of the town and
suburbs. Mr. Lawrence Buchan, who resides in
113de Place, Higher Ardwick, and has for many
years been a careful observer of temperature—re-
gistering his observations, made with excellont in-
struments of his own construction—found the lo west
temperature registered on Friday morning to be
eight degrees; exactly agreeing wall the observation
of Messrs. Ronchetti, in the same suburb of Man-
chester. But we have received one communication
deserving of attention, from the well-known scientific
attainments of the writer, which certainly exhibits a
much lower minimum than that just noticed. The
following is the note of Mr. Joule, whose experiments
and researches in physical science are well-known :
" Sir,—This (Friday) morning, at half-past seven
o'clock, the temperature of the air at Oak Field, Upper
Chorlton•road, was four degrees and a half below the►
zero of Fahrenheit, or 36A- deg. below the freezing point.
The thermometer was placed in an open field, its bulb
being five or six inches above the surface of the snow.

"I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
" JAMES J. JOULE."

This, it will be seen, is 12.17 legrees below the ob-
servations of Messrs. Ronchetti and Mr. Buchan.
But Mr. Joule's is not the only thermometer which
has shown this extraordinarily,low tempE•rature. IVe
have been informed that a gentleman residing at
lVithington observed his thermometer, at eleven
o'clock on Thursday night, at six degrees; and at
half-past six o'clock yesterday morning it indicated
two degrees below zero. This is not the first time
that we have noticed that, in the district to the south
of the town, within the range of the town fog, the
observations of low temperatures have indicated a
point lower, by several degrees, than in other localities
about equidistant from the centre of the town.
We know but previous of one occasion in which
the temperature has been observed so low as on that.
just noticed. On the 13th of January, 1826, the
thermometer indicated 10 deg. Fahrenheit. On the
morning of Thursday, the 4th of January, 1827, the
lowest point observed in the town was 6 deg. above
zero; but in several parts of the neighbourhood self:

registering thermometers were found to have marked
a temperature of 4 deg. below zero • being at that
time the most intense c.,ld ever observed in this neigh-
bourhood by any person in the habit of regh•tering
his observations. During the great frost of 1814, the
lowest point was 6 deg. above zero. It is a fact
worthy of observation, that both in January, 1827,
and during Thursday last, the barometer was un •
usua!ly low for a period of severe frost. During the
whole of Thursday last, it stood at 29.11, and the
mean pressure on the 3d of January, 1827, was 2945.
January being the month of lowest temperature,
we have taken from the registered observations of
Nle3srs. Ronchetti the lowest temperatures recorded
by them during that month in each of the last sixteen
years :
January. Degsl January. Degs
1830. 1901 1711838. 19th,Ildegs.;20th 9

831. 26th and 27th 25
832. sth

1839. 31st
1840. Gth

833. 10th 23/1841. ith, 11 dep. ; Gth 9
834. 28th 3211842 23d

83.5. 21st 2O/1843. 2d
836. 11th
£37. Ist

To these we sd 1 the two lowest temperatures
known in Manchester or its neighbourhood :
Below Zero.
1827. Jan. 4.—Neighbourhood of the town, 4 d, g.
1845. Jan. 31.—Upper Chorlton-road 4 d g.
1845. Jan. 31.—tiithington