Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1916-04-06
A WEATHER myth
The idea That the Old Fashioned
Winter Was a Fury.
FROS7S WERE RARE.

! WENC nAnC.
Records Show That Remarkable Snow
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 NOW which is supposed to
have held the land in it's grip every
year. So firmly has this idea been held
for many years that it came as a shock
when meteorologists first began to
delve into the records of the past and
prove its i~naccuracy.
There can be no doubt that Charles
Dickens, Washington Irving. artists
who depicted winter scenes, and, in a
later era, the Christmas number and
the Christmas card are mainly respon-
sible 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 to about fifty
or sixty years ago, Sc that we have to
rely on the statements Of private dia-
ries and old family records, and there
fore it takes q lot Of research to obtain
any data at all.
In olden times no one troubled to
make note Of average weather, for
writing was an art possessed only by
few, and writing materials were hard
to obtain; hence it 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 We're likely to be recorded. while
the milder ones would be passed over.
A few years ago there we're published
in France some notes concerning very
mild winters In early times. Gregory
Of Tours tells US that 5S4 was exccp-
t~ionally mild, as were the winters of
sos, 1874, S44 and 1907, when influenza
was rife.
Another mild season occurred in
1923, 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
it is now and that mild winters were
not uncommon.
There were one or two mild winters
during the next hundred years. the
most notable one being that of 1895.
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-
lions only going to prove the rule be
cause they aroused so much comment.
Pepys and Evelyn come to our aid
from the middle to the end of the sew
enteenth century and prove conclusive
ly that the old fashioned winter is a
myth. The dairies Of these famous
writer's have been analysed, and as a
hCoulI ~ ND caA lhAN icllEo VI eoIlo"
are mentioned only thirteen times over
nearly sixty years, while exceptionally
heavy storms are referred to only three
times.
In the same period there we're but
six prolonged frosts. and apparently
only the famous one Of 1884 and an
other a few years later were sc sever
as the modern ones Of 1901 and 1895.
In January, 1861, Pepys comments on
the mild winter, and in December of
the following year he notes that he
awoke to find the roofs covered with
snow, which he had not seen for three
years.
Evelyn has the same story to tell
Il few hard winters and many mild
mes. Such years were 1867. Dec.
y. Little appearance of winter as
yet" and 1923. Feb. 4. Hitherto
an exceedingly mild winter-an ex-
traordinalily dry and warm season.
without froat and like a new spring,
such as has not been known for many
years.
Here and there we come across ref
to the weather which are just
like the letters written to modern
newspapers informing readers that
"roses and primroses were in bloom i'll
my garden on Christmas day" Gil.
bert Whites record Of the weather be.
tween 1868 and 1893 helps to end the
myth, for the same number Of years
at the Nese 1T day would show pretty
much the same sort of weather, as
thirteen of the Decembers were mild
and wet.
There were mild winters in the begin
ming Of the nineteenth century. as well
as one or two eve ones. so that we
may rest assured that the ''old fash
toned winter" was just like the new
fashioned Ones.-Ernest c.. Pulbrook
in London Family Herald.
Stuck to His Rule.
He had just been discharged from
the service, owing to wounds, and
$50 I~ 90 4. E~., l.. 18Th