The Effects of Rainfall and Temperature on Percolation Through Drain Gauges

Summary

1. Partial regression equations representing the average drainage observed in any month in terms of the temperature and rainfall of that month, and including terms representing the mean secular rate of change of the drainage discharge and of its regression coefficients on rainfall and temperature, have been fitted to the thirty-six series of observations provided by the three Rothamsted drain gauges in the twelve months of the year.

2. An account is given of adequate and direct numerical methods of handling equations involving observed quantities, and chosen functions of them, as independent variates, and of calculating standard errors appropriate to the several sorts of comparison which are to be made.

3. In the absence of direct knowledge of the amount of water contained from time to time in the soil mass of the gauge it has been customary to assume that the lower average drainage of the summer months is directly due to a greater amount of evaporation taking place in these months. The results of the present enquiry direct attention to a second possibility, namely that the water content of the gauges differs considerably at different times of the year, and that the high drainage in winter is in part to be ascribed to the accumulation of water during the rainy months of autumn, while the lower drainage in summer is due to the partial depletion of the gauges during the lower rainfall of the spring months.