Weatherwatch: when rivers froze over in 1795

The temperature barely rose above 0C in an icy, stormy English winterOne upside from the climate crisis is that winters in northern Europe are warmer. The coldest January since 1659, when records began in England, was in 1795 when rivers including the Thames and Severn froze over. The temperature barely rose above freezing all month.Country parsons, who fed poor people at Christmas, gave them a shilling each to buy food for January. Grain was in already in short supply because of a dry summer and hunger became so widespread that the following spring there were bread riots. Continue reading...