The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1916-07-06
A WEATHER MYTH
The Idea That the Old Fashioned
Winter Was a Fury.
FAMOUS FRoSTs WERE RARE.
Records Show That Remarkable Snow
storms and Long Seasons of Hard
Freezing Were Not All the Rule.
Testimony Of Pepys and Evelyn.


storms and Long Seasons of Hard
Freezing Were Not All the Rule.
Testimony of Pepys and Evelyn.
Perhaps the greatest Of weather
myths is the legend Of the ''old fash
toned winter"--that prolonged season
OF ice and snow which Is supposed TO
have held the land In its grip every
year. So firmly has this idea been held
for many years that IL came rs "A shock
when mete0rolOgists first began 10
delve into the records OF the past and
prove its inaccuracy.
There can be no doubt that Charles
Dickens, Washington Irving. artists
who depicted winter scenes. and. iD a
later era. the Christmas number and
the Christmas card are mainly respon-
slbe for the belief that up to about
half "A century ago the British winters
were always extremely severe
Such records as We possess prove the
fallacy OF the idea. No records Of the
weather were kept up 10 about fifty
or sixty years ago. so that we have to
IVY WI aht Hiaithtli0 VI HliNutt UNI
ries and old family records. and there
fore 1t takes lot of research TO obtain
any data at all.
In oldeu times no one troubled 10
make note of average weather. for
writing was an art possessed only by
few, and writing materials were hard
10 obtain: hence IL Is that mention Is
made only Of something unusual. some
abnormally mild winter or heavy fall
OF snow or prolonged frosts.
And when all Is said there are com
paratively few OF the latter, although |
they were likely 10 be recorded, while |
the milder ones would be passed over
A few years ago there were published
In France some notes concerning very
mild winters In early times. Gregory
OF Tours tells US that 5S4 was exccp-
tionally mild as were the winters OF
sos. S34. s4l and 1907. when Influenza
was rife.
Another mild season occurred In
1929 when the birds are said To have
Matched their young by February,
while the weather journal Of the Rev.
William Merle. which Is In the Bod
leian library at oxford. shows us that
during the middle OF the fourteenth
century the weather was very much as
IL is now and that mild winters were
not uncommon.
There We're one or two mild winters
during the next hundred years. the /
most notable one being that of l40J.
when barley and corn were In the ear
at the end of January. Writings of the
sixteenth century have similar testi- ,
mony TO offer. the one or two eXcep-
cause they aroused so much comment |
pepys and Evelyn come 10 our aid
from the middle TO the end of the sew |
century and prove conclusive t
~ that the old fashioned winter is a a
myth. The dairies of these famous I
writers have been analysed, and as "A |
result II is found that falls of snow
ire mentioned only thirteen times over I
nearly sixty years. while exceptionally I
heavy storms are referred TO only three Il
lines a
In the same period there were but
Tx prolonged frosts. and apparently
My the famous one OF 1854 and an
'ther few years later were so severe d
IS the modern ones OF 1901 and 1895. 90
n January. 1861. Pepys comments on n
he mild winter, and In December of b
he following year he notes that he t
woke TO find the roofs covered with II
now. which he had not seen for three W
ears. 81
Evelyn has the same story TO tell Il
few hard winters and many mild in
mes. Such years wei, l6S6-7, Dee. III
,. Little appearance 4 winter as Il
ct" and 1929. Feb. '. Hitherto ST
II exceedingly mild wslter-an OK he
dry and ~trin season. n
'ithout frost and like . new spring. IN
Ich as has not been known for many is
ears Ia
Here and there we come across ref so
'ences 70 the weather which are just on
Ike the letters written TO modern
swspapers informing readers that
'oses and primrcses were in bloom in
v garden on Christmas day" Gil Ey
,rt Whites record OF the weather be- be-
yeen 176S and 179S helps TO end the IA,
yth. for the same number OF years fee
the present day would show pretty OF
uch the same sort Of weather. as en-,
irtecn OF the Decembers were mild 70
ID wet fro
There were mild winters In the begin no,
ne OF the nineteenth century. as well
one or two severe ones so that we
ny rest assured that the ''old fash a..
lcd winter" was just like the new ..
shioned ones-Ernest c. Pulbrook 90
Lordon Family Herald. .t
-.
Stuck to His Rule. 90
He had just been discharged from ''