Climate Change

Did anyone mention the weather was REAL REAL BAD in the Middle Ages?

Some trivia from the history books:

From: “The American Remembrancer, and Universal Tablet of Memory: (containing) A List of The Most Eminent Men, Whether in Ancient or Modern Times, with …..: as also The Most Memorable Events in History,…. The Whole being intended to from a comprehensive abridgement of History and Chronology, particularly of that part which relates to America”. James Hardie A.M. 1795 Entered according to Act of Congress

Selected entries related to frosts and other weather from the section, “Earthquakes, Famines, Inundations, Storms, Tempests, Frosts, Accidental Fires, &c.”

pp 200:
Frosts, remarkable; a severe one in Scotland, which lasted 14 weeks, 359; the sea of Pontus, and that between Constantinople and Scutari, 401; so severe a frost all over Britain, that the rivers were frozen up for above two months, 508: one so great, that the Danube was quite frozen over, 558; carriages were used on the Adriatic sea, 859; the Mediterranean sea was frozen over and passable in carts in 860; most of the rivers in England frozen over for two months, 908; the Thames frozen for 13 weeks, 923; a frost in England on midsummer day so vehement, that the corn and fruits were destroyed, 1035; the Mediterranean sea was frozen over and the merchants past their merchandise in carts, 1234; the Cattegat sea, between Norway and Denmark was frozen 1294; the sea from Sweden to Gothland frozen 1296; the Baltic was passable for foot passengers and horsemen for six weeks, in 1323; again in 1402; the sea between Constantinople and Iskodar was passable on ice, in 1620; a great frost in England for three months, with heavy snows, from December to March 1709; again when a fair was held on the Thames in 1716; a very severe frost in Russia, 1747; in America so severe in the winter of 1780 and 1781, that in January the passage between New York and Staten Island was practicable for the heaviest cannon; in England January 1789, when the Thames was crossed on the ice opposite the customs house, the tower, etc. This frost was at the same time general in Europe, particularly in Holland; frost and snow, with hail, in different parts of England at midsummer 1791; and in Italy and Spain in December following; the most remarkable frost in Europe which has happened in this century, was in the present winter 1794 and 1795, when the Zuyder sea in Holland was frozen over, a circumstance which has not happened in the memory of man. This frost was also intensely severe in Britain, Ireland, etc.


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