SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS EDITION WERE:

"Meteorology is the most personal of the non-life sciences" were the opening words of this esteemed periodical. The content of which examined the history of tornado climatology in Britain, climate fluctuations and the future of mankind, rain gauge stations at British royal palaces, weather on the sports pages, formation of a tornado cloud in a quiet synoptic situation and tornado hits a barge.

THE SUMMER HEATWAVE OF 1975
"1975 will be memorable in Europe for the great heat which prevailed at intervals in June and July, and which intensified in August to levels which few locations in Britain and northern Europe had known for a quarter of a century or more. The longest spell of hot weather this year began about 25 July in Britain and persisted until the 13/14 August. On the Continent it started earlier and continued in Northern France and the Low Countries for a day or two more in August." A table of high summer maxima for August 1975 is presented.

THE HAMPSTEAD DELUGE OF 14 AUGUST 1975
"In the early evening of 14 August 1975 for a period of 2 to 3 hours, a small area of north London was subjected to the most intense rainstorm ever known in the city. On Hampstead Heath a total of 170.8mm was recorded, most of it in two and a half hours, and within the vicinity a flood disaster of unprecedented magnitude. Cars floated along streets which resembled canals; torrents of water bore down walls, poured into basements, filled subways, burst sewers and brought the underground railway to a standstill; and so many houses were damaged and dozens of families were evacuated and had to be rehoused the next day."

THE STRENGTH OF AN ENGLISH DEVIL
"Some of the land-devils this summer have been unusually strong. The worst devil reported occurred on a warm cloudless day (Monday 30 June) at approx 1500GMT when the temperature was 22-23oC. It happened at Warmley, to the east of Bristol, where it tore part of the roof from a newlyconstructed wooden stores building, displacing the shed by a metre and seriously weakening the walls."

TORNADO HITS A CANAL BARGE - 17 JULY 1975
"Over 80 passengers out for a quiet cruise on the Grand Western Canal had a shock on Thursday afternoon when their horse-drawn barge was hit by a whirlwind. A high-speed wind attacked the barge for about 15 seconds, smashing a pane of glass and hurling two galvanised cans on the roof past the barge operator's head. He said, "Then the rain suddenly stopped and everything went quiet, I saw a whirlwind from the ground to cloud level coming across the field. It came straight at us sucking up water and branches."