Given the extent of medical knowledge at the time, it is not surprising that a whole host of symptoms, ranging from difficulty in breathing, tingling hands, and loss of appetite, to diarrhoea and dysentery, were blamed on the fog, whether or not it was the actual cause.
“Last Week, during the severe Weather, the Post-boy from Dumfries to Thornhill was found frozen to death upon his Horse.”
The second phase of flooding was one of the most disastrous natural events to occur in Central Europe during the past millennium
“The aristae of the barley, which was coming into ear, became brown and withered at their extremities, as did the leaves of the oats”
According to Geikie, there was a fall of ash in Caithness, Scotland, which spoiled the crops, and caused it to be called “the year of the ashie”
Around midmorn on Whitsun, June 8th of 1783, in clear and calm weather,a black haze of sand appeared to the north of the mountains nearest the farms of the Siða area.
“…after Caesar had been killed in the Senate on the day before, the sun’s light failed from the sixth hour until nightfall.”
Once the thaw started it was very rapid. The huge quantities of ice and snow that had built up over the winter melted rapidly.
The second phase of flooding was one of the most disastrous natural events to occur in Central Europe during the past millennium
“The aristae of the barley, which was coming into ear, became brown and withered at their extremities, as did the leaves of the oats”
