CLIMATE. Warm winters, cool summers, and large rainfall are the characteristics of the Brit ish climate. The island owes these advantages to the surrounding seas, which are unusually warm considering their latitude. The westerly winds (the southwest Anti-Trades) blowing most of the time from off the broad expanse of the Atlantic, heighten the temperature of the winter months, mitigate the heat of summer, and cover the skies, for a great part of the year, with clouds which often hang upon the land as fog. Icebound harbors are unkno‘‘n. There is no great variety of climate, because the country is not of great ex tent, and its surface, even to the mountain-tops, does not reach a high elevation. The difference of summer temperature between the extreme north and south of the island is about 10°. Some dis tinct varieties of climate due to wind, moisture, and differences of elevation, may be mentioned. In April, May, and June the winds blow more fre quently from the east than from the west. These are the drier months in Great Britain. The copious rains which the westerly winds bring make the highland regions of the west among the richest in rainfall of any part of Europe; but the larger part of the precipitation descends upon the highlands of the west, the plains of the east re ceiving a far smaller quantity of rain. All parts
of the country, however, receive sufficient rain for agricultural needs; and the numerous valleys extending southwest and northeast permit the sea air to carry much moisture far inland before it falls as ram. The annual range of temperature is smallest in the west because it is more ex posed to the influence of the Atlantic. The sum mers are, therefore, a little warmer and the win ters a little colder on the plains than among the western mountains. The western regions also have more sunshine than the plains, where cloud and fog are more prevalent. The average temperature of Great Britain for the year is 48° F. with extremes of 53° (Scilly Islands) and 45° (Shetland), so that the mean annual tem perature decreases about 1° for every 100 miles toward the north. Snow falls on the higher lands, and sometimes covers most of the coun try; but no mountain is so high as to be snow capped in summer. The islands are exposed to the great cyclonic storms which sometimes sweep in from the Atlantic.