ind over the whole country. The
liability to east wind in spring is one of the most marked features of
the English climate, the effect being naturally most felt on the east
coast. The southerly component in the wind is as a rule most marked in
the winter months, the westerly component predominating in summer. The
west end of a town receives the wind as it blows in fresh from the
country at all seasons, and consequently the west end of an English
town is with few exceptions the residential quarter, while
smoke-producing industries are usually relegated to the east end.

_Storms._--On account of the great frequency of cyclonic disturbances
passing in from the Atlantic, the average conditions of wind over the
British Islands give no idea of the frequency of change in direction
and force. The chief paths of depressions are from south-west to
north-east across England; one track runs across the south-east and
eastern counties, and is that followed by a large proportion of the
summer and autumn storms, thereby perhaps helping to explain the
peculiar liability of the east of England to damage from hail
accompanying thunderstorms. A second track crosses central England,
entering by the Severn estuary and leaving by the Humber or the Wash;
while a third crosses the north of England from the neighbourhood of
Morecambe Bay to the Tyne. While these are tracks frequently followed
by the centres of barometric depressions, individual cyclones may and
do cross the country in all directions, though very rarely indeed from
east to west or from north to south.

_Rainfall._--The rainfall of England, being largely due to passing
cyclones, can hardly be expected to show a very close relation to the
physical features of the country, yet looked at in a general way the
relation between prevailing winds and orographic structure is not
obscure. The western or mountainous division is the wettest at all
seasons, each orographic group forming a centre of heavy
precipitation. There are few places in the Western Division where the
rainfall is less than 35 in., while in Wales, the Cornwall-Devon
peninsula, the Lake District and the southern part of the Pennine
Region the precipitation exceeds 40 in., and in Wales and the Lake
District considerable areas have a rainfall of over 60 in. In the
Eastern Division, on the other hand, an annual rainfall exceeding 30
in. is rare, and in th