Indian and South African Rainfalls, 1892–1902

Abstract

MR. J. R. SUTTON, of Kimberley, rendered a signal service to South African meteorology in his “Introduction to the Study of South African Rainfall” (Trans. S.A. Philosophical Soc., December, 1903), but when he states that south-east winds are rare on the south-east coast of South Africa, and that the rainfall of the greater part of the tableland and south-east coast comes from some northern direction (NATURE, November 3, 1904), it is difficult to follow his conclusions. Most, if not all, of those who have studied South African rainfall will, I think, agree with me that the facts do not bear this interpretation. Least of all is it the case that there has been nothing that can properly be called a drought, in the sense of Sir J. Eliot's address, within the past fifteen years in South Africa. In all the summer rainfall areas of South Africa, viz., over the bulk of the subcontinent, drought has prevailed during recent years, and in some localities it has been terribly severe.