HOT SUMMERS AND COLD WINTERS.
"The present summer having been one of the hottest known for many years, perhaps the following short account of a few remarkable winters and summers (selected from longer lists) may not be uninteresting to the general reader.
In the year 401 A.D., the Black Sea was entirely frozen over, and in 462 the Danube; and so thorough that Theodomer marched over with an army. Again, in 763 not only the Black Sea but the Strait of the Dardanelles also. The snow in some places rose fifty feet, and the ice was so heaped up in the cities as to push down the walls; yet the summer was so hot that the springs dried up.
In 870 the heat was so intense that near Worms, the reapers dropped dead in the fields; and in 874 the winter was so long and severe that the snow continued to fall from the beginning of November to the end of March, and encumbered the ground so much that the forests were inaccessible for the supply of fuel.
1067 the cold was so intense that most of the travellers in Germany were frozen to death on the road, and in 1072 the heat was so intense that both man and animals were struck dead. In 1130 the earth yawned with drought; springs and rivers disappeared, and even the Rhine was dried up in Alsace; but in 1133 the winter was so cold that the Po was frozen from Cremona to the sea; heaps of snow rendered the roads impassable; wine casks were burst, and even the trees split up by the action of the frost, with immense noise.
In 1232 the heat was so great, especially in Germany, that the eggs were roasted in the sand; but in 1234 a forest was killed by the frost at Ravenna, and in 1236 the Danube was frozen to the bottom. In 1292 the Rhine was frozen over at Breysach and bore loaded waggons, and one sheet of ice extended from Norway to Jutland; yet 1293 was extremely hot, and both the Rhine and Danube were dried up.
The year 1408 was one of the coldest winters ever remembered; the Baltic was frozen over, and wolves came across the ice into Jutland. In 1434 snow fell for forty days without interruption, and in 1468 the winter was so severe in Flanders, that the wine distributed to the soldiers was cut into pieces with hatchets, and the same happened in 1554, the wine being frozen into solid lumps. In 1556 the drought was so great the springs failed, and wheat rose in England from 8s. to 53s. a quarter.
In 1621 and 1622 all the rivers of Europe were frozen. A sheet of ice covered the Hellespont, and the Venetian fleet was choked up in the lagoons of the Adriatic. In 1658 Charles X. crossed the ice from Holstein to Denmark with his whole army, foot, and horse, followed by his baggage and artillery. In 1684 many forest trees, and even the oaks in England, were split by the frost. Most of the hollies were killed; almost all the birds perished; and coaches drove along the Thames, which was covered with ice eleven inches thick.
In 1709 occurred "the cold winter," when all the rivers and lakes of Europe were frozen, and even the seas to the distance of several miles from the shore. The frost penetrated three feet into the ground; birds and wild beasts were strewed dead in the fields; and men perished by thousands in their houses. The Adriatic was quite frozen over; and even the coast about Genoa.
The winter of 1716 was nearly as severe, and a fair was held on the Thames. Yet in 1718, the weather was extremely hot and dry all over Europe. The air felt so oppressive that all the theatres were shut in Paris, and scarcely any rain fell for nine months. The following year was equally hot, and the thermometer rose to 98 degrees of Fahrenheit. In some places the fruit trees blossomed two or three times.
The winter of 1740 was scarcely inferior in severity to that of 1709. The snow lay eight or ten feet deep in Spain and Portugal; all the lakes in England froze; and many trees were killed by the frost. The year 1746 was remarkably hot; the grass withered and the leaves dropped from the trees, while 1754 was both hot and cold. Next winter was so severe that in England the strongest ale, exposed to the air in a class, was covered, in less than a quarter of an hour, with ice an eighth of an inch thick.
The winter of 1776 was so severe that the Danube bore ice five feet thick below Vienna. Wine froze in the cellars of France and Holland; many people were frostbitten, and vast numbers of birds and fishes perished. The summer of 1811 was very hot and dry, the winter of 1812 remarkably severe; the one was remarkable for its vintage, the other for the disastrous campaign of Napoleon in Russia."
Published in the Hobart Mercury, Saturday 23 June 1866, and the Adelaide Advertiser, Tuesday 4 September 1868. They are reprints of articles that were published in the late 1830s, such as the Baltimore American. The original source of the data is a periodical called The Parterre, published on 21 January, 1837 (pages 30-33).
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