While mufflers, jerseys, light coats, gloves and other winter apparel were being dragged out of cupboards and camphor-wood boxes and hung out in the fresh air to get rid of the acrid smell of mothballs, the thermometers at Siccawei and the Cathedral were registering a drop of over twenty degrees since the beginning of last week.
The peculiar weather that has been floating around Shanghai, thanks to belated typhoons which omitted to look at the calendar and thus see that their season is now closed, has also contributed to the somewhat uncomfortable conditions which have prevailed, yesterday's winds and bre-eyes having a definite "nip" in them.
it is, of course, to be expected, winter being one of those things which. invariably comes round, like taxi chits at the end of the month. October 9, according to the Chinese calendar, was the day of "Cold Dew" (han lu) and next week, on October 24, comes. that unpleasant day, "Frost's Descent" (shuang-chiang).
Shanghai has, however, certain grounds for a mild grumble since, after a very weak attempt at a hot summer, the weather has suddenly decided to take a change for the colder instead of kindly stretching out Shanghai's best season, Autumn.
The "maximum" thermometers at Siccawei Observatory soon began to feel the effects, dropping steadily each day from the previous day's level On Monday, the maximum was 92 degrees. On Wednesday, the maximum was 846, the minimum 65.1; Thursday, it was 828 maximum, 63.7 minimum; while on Friday, the minimum' temperature had improved slightly to 069, the maximum was only 784.
On Saturday, the same depressing story was to be related—a drop in the maximum temperature to 745 and in the minimum to 644—with a few nasty, chilly breezes just to round matters off. Yesterday, Siccawei recorded minimum and maximum temperature of 58.8 deg. Fehrenheit and 68.9 deg. Fahrenheit respectively.
Yes, it certainly looks as though it won't be long before winter definitely arrives in Shanghai!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.