Dorset's own Martin Rowley spent much time and effort looking at historical weather and compiling his results at:
http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/climate/In 2014 a notice appeared on his site:
We made note of the change and thought the database was in good hands.IMPORTANT! For various reasons, I shall no longer be able to maintain this web site - these files will not be updated / extended as of December 2014: the site itself should remain 'active' until spring 2017 [at least] - but, if there's anything you find of interest, please take a copy for off-line reference as it may disappear at some point in the future. This site will however have a permanent archive 'home' with the British Library HERE: enter 'Booty Meteorological' in the search box.
Maybe not.
The British Library link goes to "https://web.archive.org/web/20170114112646/http://www.webarchive.org.uk/" which may or may not lead you to "https://www.webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/target/286294101/source/subject" which in turn offers up a couple links to the Wayback Machine's:
https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20130417044152/http://www.booty.org.uk/booty.weather/It seems the Library may have misplaced the actual data pages.
A further keyword search exposed (!) the hazards of a URL such as www.booty.org.uk/booty.weather/, returning, among other hits a Mexican meteorologist who appears to enjoy taking her clothes off.
Because the data is a unique compilation we are going to do what we can to get it back on the internet, this time hosted on Google's (Blogger) servers but it might take some time to find what pages went where.
In defence of the British Library, they have a lot of stuff to keep track of and probably have the pages on some dusty old server down in one of the sub-basement archives. The fact the Wayback machine didn't catch the individual pages is a bit more troubling.
It would be a real shame to have the pages disappear completely.
That said, here's the only page we had that was easily found on our servers but, as indicated above I believe we have more.
Somewhere.
Weather Events In Great Britain and Ireland In the Years 500 to 750 (the Martin Rowley, booty.org.uk files)That was followed by:
Weather Events In Great Britain and Ireland In the Years 1000-1099 (the Martin Rowley, booty.org.uk files)And:
Weather Events In Great Britain and Ireland In the Years 1300-1399 (the Martin Rowley, booty.org.uk files)So here we are.
http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/climate/751_999.htm
| main historical menu |
| <<<<500 - 750 AD |
| Date | T | R | S | Description | Ref: |
| 751 - 999 | |||||
| 759/760 (Winter) | A cold winter. (Easton, in CHMW/Lamb) [ Some accounts have this as 761 .. usual dating problems ]. | 1 | |||
| 763/64 (Winter & later) | The winter is noted as being 'severe' .. and was followed by a " long and terrible drought " .. in the spring/summer of 764: suggests abnormally persistent blocking / high pressure situation (at least, 'abnormal' in length of persistence in the same 'phase'), with the primary jet perhaps shunted well to the south. Some sources note 'great snow', with an 'intense' frost. In 'London Weather' entry, .... "one of the severest winters known in history". (Probably affected large areas of continental Europe, again suggesting a 'Scandinavian High' situation.) | 1, 8 | |||
| ~770 - ~800 | A period of higher frequency of cold winters (note: not necessarily every winter). This leads to the suggestion of blocking of the main Atlantic, westerly flow by often slow-moving, intense anticyclones, or an increased frequency of east or northeast flow with higher pressure to the north of these islands. This would tie in to a certain extent with the idea that Scandinavian exploration / raids were assisted by lack of 'westerly-storminess'. | 1 | |||
| 798 (Winter) | Ireland: snow - men & animals died. | LWH | |||
| ~800 (December) | December 24th (original recorded as the 'Eve of Christmas', so presumably we must regard this as an 'Old Style' dating. Also, the exact year is subject to the same uncertainty as other events so long ago): gale: Great SW or W wind. Cities destroyed (!); Lamb has this comment in ref. 23: " The first recorded one of a series of storm floods .. which reduced the size of the island of Heligoland by more than half by the year 1300." | LWH, 23 | |||
| 804 (March) | March 17th: Ireland - Tornado(?): thunder, wind & lightning. '1010 men killed'. [ I wouldn't normally detail all 'tornado' events, but the death-toll warrants mention, and I do wonder given that over a thousand died, whether this was in fact a 'storm' event due to a major depression rather than a small-scale tornadic event.] | LWH | |||
| 817/818 (Winter) | December 25th (assumed 817, presumably logged as 'Christmas Day'): Ireland - snow: many rivers & lakes frozen to February 22nd. [ Although only tied to Ireland, given the severity & length of the event, Britain must also have been affected. ] [ The following from research work on Irish texts (and coupling same to major volcanic eruptions affecting the stratosphere) . . . " There was abnormal ice and much snow from the Epiphany to Shrovetide. The Boyne and other rivers were crossed dry-footed; lakes likewise. Herds and hunting-parties were on Loch Neagh, (and) wild deer were hunted. The materials for an oratory were afterwards brought by a large company from the lands of Connacht over Upper and Lower Loch Erne into [Leinster]; and other unusual things were done in the frost and hail. Epiphany is 6 January, Julian Calendar or 10 January, Gregorian Calendar. Shrovetide is a moveable feast relative to the date of Easter, occurring in later January this year. Loch Neagh and Upper and Lower Loch Erne are large Irish lakes. Source: Annals of Ulster, 818 CE. Source: http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024035/article ] | LWH, (see text) | |||
| 821/822 (Winter) | A severe winter. (Easton, in CHMW/Lamb) | 1 | |||
| 827 | Possible severe winter. Thames frozen for nine weeks. | 8, LWH | |||
| 838 (December) | Major North Sea storm/surge affected Dutch coastal communities; possibly the worst (known!) such storm of the 9th century, with high loss of life. [ event catalogued for Dutch coast/may not be applicable for English coast, but proximity would suggest some impact this side of the North Sea. ] | GOTT | |||
| 844/845 (Winter) | A cold winter. (Easton, in CHMW/Lamb) | 1 | |||
| 850 | |||||
| 855/856 (Winter) | A cold winter. (Easton, in CHMW/Lamb); Great ice & frost until Jan. 7th - rivers & lakes froze. [ From research work on Irish contemporary texts, we have the following … " much ice and frost so that the principal lakes and rivers of Ireland could be crossed by people on foot and on horse-back from the ninth of the kalends of December (27 November, AD855, Gregorian Calendar) to the seventh of the ides of January (11 January, AD856, Gregorian Calendar)' (Annals of Ulster). These conditions are clearly severe for Ireland. "; thought to be coupled to major volcanic eruption affecting the stratosphere. Ref:http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024035/article ] | 1, LWH, (see text) | |||
| 856 | Ireland: gale: very great wind; woods felled. | LWH | |||
| 859/60 (Winter) | A severe winter in England. | 1, 8 | |||
| 873/874 (Winter) | A cold winter. (according to Easton, in CHMW/Lamb); Scotland: specifically a cold winter - great frost from November to April; thaw brought floods. | 1, LWH | |||
| 880/881 (Winter) | A cold winter. (Easton, in CHMW/Lamb) | 1 | |||
| 892(?) (November) | 11th November: Ireland - gale, many trees and houses fell. | LWH | |||
| 908 | Possible severe winter. Most English rivers frozen for two months. | 8, LWH | |||
| 910 - 930 | Extended droughts with regularity: also thought that the summer half-years were warm or very warm more often than not - some notably hot summers. | 1 | |||
| 912/913 (Winter) | A severe winter. (Easton, in CHMW/Lamb) | 1 | |||
| 917 (Winter) | Ireland: severe winter - Great snow. Lakes frozen. [ As elsewhere, implies a blocked pattern, with occasional 'Atlantic' incursions. Must have affected Britain as well I would have thought.] | LWH | |||
| 923 | Possible severe winter. Thames frozen for 13 weeks. Year may be 928 or 929. | 8, LWH | |||
| 927/928 (Winter) | A cold winter. (Easton, in CHMW/Lamb) | 1 | |||
| 934 | Katla eruption / Iceland: the severe fissure eruption in 934 was one of the largest lava eruptions in the past 10,000 years. [Possible atmospheric effects but for obvious reasons not well documented: need to do a bit more digging around on this one.] | x | |||
| 939/940 (Winter) | A cold winter. (Easton, in CHMW/Lamb) | 1 | |||
| 941 (Winter) | Ireland: cold - Lakes & rivers froze. [ I wonder if this belongs to the winter noted above? ] | LWH | |||
| 944 | Possible severe gale/storm in London; many houses destroyed. 1500 houses "fell" (destroyed?): affected the whole of England. | 8, LWH | |||
| 946 - 948 | England: drought - 'no rain for 3 years' (unlikely to have been "no" rain - more likely a marked shortage of rainfall / winter snowfall). | LWH | |||
| 955 (Summer) | Wales: Hot summer. [ Must surely have affected other parts of Britain - indeed, the heat may have been 'exceptional', if the summer was notably hot as far west as Wales.] | LWH | |||
| 973 | Thames flood in London. | 8 | |||
| 974/75 (Winter) | Probably a severe winter across Britain .. usual doubts about dates etc. Severe winter over whole of Europe until March 11th (OS). | 1, 8, LWH | |||
| 990's | Extended droughts with regularity: also thought that the summer half-years were warm or very warm more often than not - some notably hot summers. | 1 | |||
| 992 | Ireland: Storm flood - tempest (high wind?) submerged island fort in one hour Wicklow. [ The way this is written up suggests that this was a 'storme surge' event, rather than necessarily due to heavy rain - though the latter may have played a part.] | LWH | |||
| 995 (Summer) | Summer cold throughout Europe; severe frost & ice (quite remarkable if true in July as given on this site!) | LWH | |||
| 998 | Possible severe winter. Thames frozen for five weeks. | 8, LWH |
| main historical menu |
| 1000 - 1099>>>> |
