Feb. 2, 1046: English monks record the onset of a cold snap so harsh that “no man then alive could remember so severe a winter as this was, both through loss of men and through loss of cattle; yea, fowls and fishes through much cold and hunger perished.”
“Little do they realize that they are chronicling what might have signaled the beginning of a centuries-long cooling period now referred to as the Little Ice Age,” says this article on wired.com.
“The monks set down their observations in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a loose collection of historical records kept in monasteries across England between the eighth and 12th centuries.
And in the same year, after Candlemas, came the strong winter, with frost and with snow, and with all kinds of bad weather.”
A loss of cattle, fowls and fishes, and perishing of hunger … that might bring on some fighting in the streets for food.
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/02/feb-2-1046-theres-a-400-year-nip-in-the-air/
Thanks to Phillip for this link
11 Responses to There’s a 400-Year Nip in the Air
SUNSPOTS
11 May - 4 sunspots
Credit: landscheidt.infoGood news! A publisher in Italy has now translated Not by Fire but by Ice into Italian.
La Prossima Era Glaciale
Available hereClick for full size
Ice Age Maps
Are You Prepared?
I recommend this DVD
Warmer during most of
the past 10,000 years
- 530,999
Unique
VisitorsPowered By
The medieval warm period was from 10-13th century and the mini-iceage 13-18 century. 1046 was not the start of the mini-iceage.
—that’s interesting because I’d always understood that 1046 was in the middle of a warm period and that the cold period started in about 1300. However, I suppose that there were ‘interleaving’ cold periods just as there were such periods during the cold period.
BTW, this excerpt comes from Abingdon Manuscript C of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. Amazing what I’ve got tucked away on my bookshelves!
—I’ve just realised:
‘There’s a 400-Year Nip in the Air’
could be misconstrued!
And if anyone wondered, ‘Cliffhild’ means female-warrior-of-the-cliffs. Presumable, the White Cliffs of Dover.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mobile/news/article/heaviest-snowfall-in-a-century-hits-moscow/475102.html
7.1 feet of snow this winter so far, 50% more than an average entire winter.
“no man then alive could remember so severe a winter as this was”
That could easily describe Moscow right now , very few people made it to the 100 year mark in the harsh living conditions back then , in fact 50 was considered “venerable”
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/heaviest-snowfall-in-a-century-hits-moscow/475102.html#ixzz2K4m8i13z
Feb 2, 1046?
Isn’t 1046 supposed to be at the peak of the “Medieval Warm Period”?
Perhaps t’was not so warm after all ….
the agw crowd will keep ignoring any past records they cant manage to misinterpret to suit their agenda,
this well kept series of records from wide areas and with no desire to lie or mislead simply cannot be correct,:-)
history never repaets and the earth has no cyclical events….
just ask al and the rest
That’s exactly what I think….
Instead of a similar minimum like the Maunder or Dalton, it could be a bigger cycle something like the spörer perhaps?
The Russian scientist you mentioned before that predicted the minimum to start as early as 2014 seems to be dead-on correct if I look at the sun-spot trend?
The last Bond cycle started ~ 1500 and brought a sudden and profound decrease in temperatures all over the world.
Since that time we’ve already had 2 great periods of cooling, lasting nearly 400 years each one and the last cooling period, the LIA (from ~ 1450 to ~ 1850), was colder than the previous one that followed the beginning of the Bond cycle in the year 500 AD.
This suggests that the new Bond cycle that is beginning now will bring even deeper cooling than previous one and possibly the full ice age.
According to the following graph of Richard Muller’s book:
http://muller.lbl.gov/pages/IceAgeBook/Image2.gif
there was a dip in the middle of the approximately 100 years that the hottest part of MWP lasted.
I guess we could compare this brief cooling with the colder period of the 60′s and beginning of 70′s in the similar climate warming of the XX century.
It was only a brief dip followed by many more decades of warm climate.
The sun proceeds though a repetitious 360 year cycle of three phases. The first is Regular Oscillations. The Second is the Grand Solar Maximum. The third is the Grand Solar Minimum. As of 2009, the sun left the Grand Solar Maximum and entered into the Grand Solar Minimum. We are entering a period of about 60 years of brutal cold, fuel shortages, and food shortages, which will reach its nadir around 2040.