Abstract
Dec. 14, 763. Cold Winter in Western Europe.—The winter of 763–4, the first concerning which details are extant, appears to have been very cold in western Europe. Winter began early in October, but the greatest cold continued from Dec. 14 until Mar. 16. It extended over the whole of Europe, from England to the Black Sea. The Bosphorus and neighbouring parts of the Black Sea were frozen; in several countries the snow was 30 ft. deep in places, and in Gaul the olives and figs died, the corn froze in the soil, and in 764 a terrible famine desolated a vast region and cost a multitude of lives. The Danube and other rivers were frozen, as was the sea for a long distance from the land. Holinshed records: “There fell such a marvellous great snow, and therewith so extreme a frost, as the like had not been heard of, continuing from the beginning of the winter almost till the midst of spring, with the rigour whereof trees and fruits withered away, and not only feathered fowls, but also beasts on the land and fishes in the sea died in great numbers.” It is not mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, but an entry in 761 records: “This year was the severe winter”, and there may be some confusion of dates.
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Historic Natural Events. Nature 126, 941 (1930). https://doi.org/10.1038/126941a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/126941a0