The Dantean Anomaly

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/jun/18/weatherwatch-dantean-anomaly

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Seven hundred years ago, the summer was not just bad, it was catastrophic.

The year 1315 marked the end of the long medieval warm period. Weather historian Neville Brown describes the conditions as “quasi-continuous cyclonic circulation of moist air of polar origin” – endless days of grey skies and heavy rain. Brown calls it the Dantean Anomaly, because the bad weather continued until 1321 when Dante died. It might equally have been named after Dante’s visions of Hell.

The rains caused extensive flooding across Europe. Good soil was eaten away by erosion and rainwater cut gullies so deep that fields could not be ploughed. Without sun, crops failed to thrive and famine resulted.

“Bread did not have its usual nourishing power and strength because the grain was not nourished by the warmth of summer sunshine,” wrote Johannes de Trokelowe at St Alban’s Abbey.

The price of food soared and laws were passed in England to control the price of milk, meat and ale. Economists are still arguing over how much of the famine was caused by market failures rather than weather.

Bad weather also brought bad health. Many people died of intestinal disease from eating contaminated food. Herds and flocks were devastated by murrain, a medieval term encompassing foot-and-mouth, anthrax and other diseases.

Although little known, the Dantean Anomaly with its subsequent famine may have killed one sixth of the population, and weakened a generation for the Black Death which was to follow.