Ian started his talk looking at the varying climate over this period and explaining that a 30 year average gives us data for assessing climate change. Information about changing weather patterns can be collected from tree ring analysis, soil samples, ship’s logs, diaries: all of these can give us some understanding of weather patterns over time.
After Thermometers were invented, vicars and people in country houses kept regular temperature readings, many of which have survived.
The bulk of Ian’s talk concerned major weather events, which would have had a massive impact on people living at the time. We were told about the great storm of 1703, when there were 160 mile an hour winds off the Kent coast, leading to an enormous death toll in southern England (estimates of 15,000 have been suggested) as people were unable to find shelter.
He mentioned extremely cold winters between the 16th and 19th centuries, when Frost Fairs were held on the Thames, and the impact of the eruption of Mount Tambora, in the East Indies in 1815, which drastically lowered temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere over the next 2-3 years, and resulted in the “year without a summer” in 1816. Again, this had a huge impact on agriculture in the UK, Europe and the US and may explain why an ancestor moved at this time.
Ian went on to describe severe winter weather causing the collapse of bridges in Rochester and Maidstone, the effects of a violent hailstorm in 1911, and very cold winters during WW2.
Ian is co author of The Kent Weather book, which contains a great deal of detail about weather in this region, accompanied by photographs and maps.
Ian is very happy to answer any questions on weather and can be contacted via his website.
Report by Viv Carter