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The meteorological framework and the cultural memory of three severe winter-storms in early eighteenth-century Europe

Authors :
João Paulo Taborda
Maria João Alcoforado
Maria de Fátima Nunes
Jürg Luterbacher
Dennis Wheeler
Emmanuel Garnier
Christian Pfister
Centre de recherche d'histoire quantitative ( CRHQ )
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS ) -Université de Caen Normandie ( UNICAEN )
Normandie Université ( NU ) -Normandie Université ( NU )
Centre de recherche d'histoire quantitative (CRHQ)
Université de Caen Normandie (UNICAEN)
Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] (LSCE)
Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)
Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa
Source :
Climatic Change, Pfister, Christian; Garnier, Emmanuel; Alcoforado Maria, Joao; Wheeler, Dennis; Luterbacher, Jürg; Nuňes, Fatima; Taborda, Joao Paolo (2010). The meteorological framework and the cultural memory of three severe winter-storms in early eighteenth-century Europe. Climatic change, 101(1), pp. 281-310. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands 10.1007/s10584-009-9784-y , Climatic Change, Springer Verlag, 2010, vol. 101 (n°1-2), p. 281-310. 〈10.1007/s10584-009-9784-y〉, Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal, Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP), instacron:RCAAP, Climatic Change, 2010, vol. 101 (n°1-2), p. 281-310. ⟨10.1007/s10584-009-9784-y⟩, Climatic Change, Springer Verlag, 2010, vol. 101 (n°1-2), p. 281-310. ⟨10.1007/s10584-009-9784-y⟩, Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos), Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC)-FCT-Sociedade da Informação
Publication Year :
2010

Abstract

Three violent eighteenth-century storms that ravaged the North Sea area (1703), western central Europe (1739) and Portugal (1739) are investigated from the point of view of their meteorological setting, their socio-economic impact, and whether and by what means they secured an enduring place in the cultural memory. The evidence draws on individual narrative sources such as chronicles and poems, and institutional sources such as ship’s logbooks and state-organised ‘windthrow’ inventories of tree loss. Each of the three storms had socio-economic impacts that could be described as ‘war-like’ in the damage caused to buildings and the destruction of forests. The “Great Storm” of December 1703 jeopardized English naval supremacy in the War of the Spanish Succession by sinking a number of Royal Navy ships and taking the life of more than 8000 seamen. In January 1739 two similarly destructive storms swept over mainland Europe. The cultural memory of the three events here considered was however strikingly different. The sequence of storms in January 1739 though being the most protracted of the last centuries, and well-chroniceled, did not persist in the collective memories of those in France, Switzerland and elsewhere who experienced them. Likewise, the “Great Storm” was quickly forgotten on the continent, whereas its memory remained deeply rooted in England through the writings of Defoe (1704). In Portugal the 1739 storm won a lasting place in the country’s cultural memory owing to two poems that it inspired. Furthermore, it was recorded in the Kingdom’s official newspaper, in the astronomical prognoses and in written records of the Old Regime’s cultural elite.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
15731480 and 01650009
Volume :
101
Issue :
1-2
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Climatic Change
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....b9616a7b03f9d185b00265708d5457c4
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-009-9784-y