Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 313, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1919 — LAND OF VARYING CLIMATE [ARTICLE]

LAND OF VARYING CLIMATE

Statistics Show That California Easily Leads Every State in the Union in Diversity. 'CSTiFbrnia. as is well known, leads every state in the Union. It is next to Texas in size, witli an area of about 160,000- square miles and a length of 775'“miles. and it extends through nearly ten degrees of latitude, with a vertical range from' neariy 200 feet below sea level to 15.000 feet above. A. H. Palmer of the United States weather bureau reports that the annual rainfall. varies from one-half inch in the Mohave district to sorer 100 inches in the Sierra Nevada,-while certain areas have the greatest snowfall in the United' Stares, and others have practically none. \n rhe Sierra Nevada! the average annual precipitation increases S.f> inches per 1.000 feet of rise up to 5.000 feet, and diminishes at greater heights. In ttye south, about 90 per cent of the.rainfall is ity winter; in the north, 75 per cent. Heavy falls often occur over short periods—7l.s inches for the month being, a January record 1 at r tyn elevation of 2.750 feet; apd 10-7 inches in 24 hours at a height. ofrii,s43 feet is, very curiously, an August record. Lower stations have shown periods of -13 months to two years , with no measurable rainfall. While the depressions—such as Imperial valley and Death valley—have several years' records of less than onehalf inch! Tamarack. 1 at 8,000- feet in the Sierra Nevada, has a winter snowfall averaging over 42 fq^t; and' at some of the upper stations in the Sierras the snow accumulates on the ground to /depths of 40 to 50 feet. *