Page:In the high heavens.djvu/283

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THE "HEAT WAVE" OF 1892
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language is justified will be obvious from one fact which is mentioned in the same connection. It appears that a body of troops which were out for manoeuvres in the neighbourhood of Vienna during this terrible weather, suffered so severely that there were 200 cases of sunstroke among them, and many of those so attacked did not recover. About the fourth week in August, England experienced in some small measure the effects of the great heat-wave. But only in small measure, because we happen to lie on the margin of the globe area which was the seat of the high temperature. However, it may be remarked that for two or three days, an unusually high thermometer prevailed in South-Eastern England. On August 24, 80° is recorded in the shade at Dover, and on August 23 and 24, the highest and lowest indications of the thermometer at London were 80° and 59° respectively. It follows that the temperatures attained in this country fell far short of what was experienced in so many places on the Continent, nor did the unusual heat which was reached last long in Great Britain. We find that by the 24th and 25th of August, the range at London had so far declined that the highest and lowest points were 75° and 62° respectively. It was not till some days later that the decline really set in on the Continent; for on the 25th of August, there was still a temperature of 89° in the shade at Vienna. On the 26th of August, which is the last record of the great wave that we shall here set down, the thermometer shows 84° at St. Petersburg, the report accompanying it with the emphatic word "scorching."

From the various facts we have set forth it appears that towards the end of July an extraordinarily high temperature, even for that period of the year, prevailed over a