In article ,
Robin Nicholson writes:
On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 20:28:06 +0000, John Hall
wrote:

Those who like cold winters may be able to take some heart from what
followed the mild winters of the 1730s. And there is at least a
slight hint in the data that the mildness of our winters may have
declined a little post 2000.

The runs of coldest winters are all back in the 1670s and 1680s.

John-was the winter c 1708 a really severe one over in the Baltic?

1708 wasn't, at least in England, but 1709 was. Looking in HH Lamb's
"Climate, History and the Modern World", I found: "The winter of 1708-9
was of historic severity in Europe... People walked across the Baltic on
the ice..." (p232)

IIRC a rather aggressive Swedish King (was it Charles XII) decided on
a campaign against 'Russia' and came a cropper.

So Napoleon and Hitler had a predecessor.

I am struggling to
remember my A level History!


--
John Hall
Johnson: "Well, we had a good talk."
Boswell: "Yes, Sir, you tossed and gored several persons."
Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84); James Boswell (1740-95)