'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎3] (114/258)

ON HAILSTORMS IN INDIA.
3
January 5
February 20
March 31
April 34
May 17
June 4
as appears from the published extracts, in the following proportions for
the various months of the year
July 2
August ’’ o
September 2
October 3
November 4
December 5
It will be seen that hail chiefly falls in our driest months,—February,
March, and April—and does not seem dependent on temperature
May, which supplies seventeen hailstorms, being the hottest month of
the year—the true maxima due to the season being masked by the
rains wherever these occur near the summer solstice. December and Ja
nuary, almost the coldest months, are nearly devoid of hail. We have
a few instances of hail occurring in June and July in Central India,
when the rains were late in setting in, but the hailstones in those cases
were always small, and the falls light in comparison to those experienced
in other periods of the year.
Hours when Hailstorms occur.— It very seldom happens that
writers advert to the hours when hailstorms occur. Of a list of 30
published in a previous Number (IX. p. 196 for 1850), from the notes
of that indefatigable observer Dr. Spilsbury, there are 10 set down as
for example, above 12,000; and on the table-land of Ethiopia at heights between
6000 and 10,000 feet-”
Our hail-storms are most abundant in the Delta of the Ganges, just under,
or immediately beyond, many of them within the Tropics, and along the Coro
mandel Coast. Dr- Thomson,who published two years before Mrs. Somerville, gives
the following abstract of the seasons at which hail mostly falls—Mrs- Somerville’s
remark is confined to the continent of Europe:—
“ This meteor rarely appears during the night, though Kamtz records several
intances. Hailstorms most frequently occur at the hottest period of the day.
In this country ("England) they are most abundant in winter ; the relative
proportion being, in—
Winter, to all the other seasons, as 45.5 to 54.5
Spring, 29 5 to 70.5
Autumn, 22.0 to 78.0
Summer, 3.0 to 97.0
In Germany and Switzerland the proportions are somewhat different, as Kamtz
has shown from the records of the Meteorological Society of the Palatinate,
where the seasons and hours of 440 hailstorms are noted. From that table we
find that 194 occurred in spring, 122 in summer, 66 in autumn, and 58 in winter.
During the same seasons, the number were greatest at 2 p. m., viz.—83, 15,13,
and 10 ; from 10 p. m. to 4 A. m. both inclusive, we find only 18 hailstorms
tabulated, of which, 8 occurred in summer, 5 in winter, 3 in autumn and 2 in
spring. That hail falls among the lofty Alps, and even, as Balmat found, oa
the summit of Mont Blanc, is satisfactorily testified.’’