The Topeka state journal., 1899-12-29
SUNSHINE AND RAIN.

Albuquerque, N. NJ, a town of $500
population, says it holds the record for
the greatest number of sunshiny days
in the year of any town on the Ameri
can continent. It's records show a per-
iod of three years in which there were
only two totally cloudy days when the
sun was not visible at some time be
tween the hours of rising and setting,
and there is official cOrrObOratOn for
this in the announcement OF the signal
Service that the point of least annual
rainfall in the United States is at Al
buquerque, n. M" Other cities having
a low record of rainfall are Port Said,
Egypt: Hyderabad, India, Lima. Serui
Madrid, Spain; Valparaiso, Chilli; Oran,
Morocco; NajOrca in the Mediterranean
Sea; Jerusalem, Cairo, Barcelona and
Alexandria
The heaviest recorded rafnfalls in the
United Kingdom have been z inches at
Ardishaig, Argyle, on December z, 1863
and AZ inches at London on April IL,
1873; while "a inches of rain has fallen
at Bombay in tWenty-four hours, so at
Genoa and SO at Gibraltar. The wet
test place in England is Seathwaite,
where the average annual rainfall IS
145 inches. and in the world Cherrapun-
ei. in southwestern Assam, where the
average for fifteen years is 492 inches,
and where in 1861 the record rose to 900
inches. The rainfall of the Onlleu
Kingdom averages 3S inches yearly; on
the European continent % inches and
in the United States 40 inches, taking
the whole country through.
1t is customary to designate as
sunny day one during which the sky is
at no time clOuded, though the exact
lines of demarkatiOn between sunny
days and rainy days are seldom so
clearly defined as to exclude cOntrO-
versies on the subject The MeteoroloS-
ical department of the United States
government is conducted on a more
thorough, comprehensive method than
that of any European government when
the extent and diversity of the terri
tory covered and the obstacles to ac-
curate information are taken into ac-
count.
It is computed by statisticians that
the average annual rainfall in the Uni
ted States would. if by some magical
or mechanical device all gathered into
once place, exceed by four times the
volume of water in Lake Erie, which
has an area. of nearly 10000 square
miles and an average depth of 200 feet.
The annual rainfall is computed to he
in volume about the same as all the
water in the Mediterranean, and any
person caught in a storm without an
umbrella, may, if of a philosophical dis
position, take this fact into account
as evidence of the truth of the ancient
saying that nothing is really so bad
but that it might be cOnsidera bly,
worse.
In a controversy recently started in
Europe as to the eminence OF sunny
Italy. sunny Spain''Or sunny France"
it was shown mathematically that
Spain was the country best entitled to
the designation sunny for Spain IS
the country in which in all Europe the
number of sunny days is largest in a
year, Italy following and France com
ing third. The rainfall in Seville in p
inches a year, or only an inch a year
less than in the city of San Francisco,
an apparent discrepancy, which is ex-
planned by the fact that when it rains
in Seville it rains very hard, whereas a
rainstOrm in san Francisco does not
rise usually to the dignity of much
more than a shower.