I have the data for Beijing and Berlin. Imagine spending a winter outside
naked with no fur in January in Berlin. The temperature record for Berlin
and Beijing are only for the past 100 years, which has been one of the
warmest in several centuries, probably since 800-1000 AD. (reference upon
request). In the past 100 years, the average high temperature in January in
Berlin Average high 35 F
Average low 26 F
coldest ever -11 F
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/wberlin.htm
If you assume that these temperatures occur once a century, then that would
kill off a lot of naked people. Given a good 30 mph wind and the wind chill
would be in the -40 F range. Fire and clothing were a must.
For Beijing, it was warmer.
Beijing Average high 34 F
Average low 17 F
coldest ever 1 F
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/asia/china/wbeijing.htm
However the average nightly low is at or below freezing for 5 months in
Beijing. Does anyone think they could survive such a winter naked?
Now, once again, this has been one of the warmest centuries and during
glacial ages, the cold must have been worse. The Little ice Age was a
near-glaciation of the earth which occurred between 1200 and 1700 AD.
"The Maunder minimum corresponds almost precisely with the coldest
excursion of the 'little ice age', a period of unusual cold in Europe from
the 16th century through the early 19th century. In the coldest extremes
of that period the average temperature was about one degree Celsius colder
than it is now, according to the British climatologist Hubert H. Lamb. In
that period the Alpine glaciers advanced farther than they had since the
last major glaciation 15,000 years ago. In that period too the Norse
colony in southwestern Greenland perished to a man, cut off from the rest
of the world by pack ice that year after year failed to thaw."~John A.
Eddy, "The Case of the Missing Sunspots", Scientific American, May, 1977,
p. 87
There were food riots in Japan (History: A Climatological View", Mechanical
Engineering, April, 1980, p. 62)
Glaciers wiped out long-established European cities.
"Near the end of the sixteenth century the glaciers advanced rapidly and
about 1605 they overran settlements which had been occupied since the
beginning of history."~C. E. P. Brooks, Climate Through the Ages, (New
York: Dover Publications, 1970), p. 301
"A bizarre occurrence - serious for the individuals concerned - presumably
resulting from the great southward spread of the polar water and ice was
the arrival about the Orkney Islands a number of times between about 1690
and 1728, and once in the river Don near Aberdeen, of an Eskimo in his
kayak."~H. H. Lamb, Climate, History and the Modern World, (New York:
Methuen, 1982), p. 209.
Apparently, the cold moved far to the south during that time. They say
that if you look at medieval paintings of the Baltic made in winter, it was
totally frozen over. If I recall the last time that happened was 1926.
They say you could ice skate form Denmark to Norway.
During the Wurm glaciation in FRANCE, the temperature was believed to be
-20 C.
"A more universal pattern is the tendency for sites to occur predominantly
along the south or south-east facing flanks of valleys, in preference to
the north or north-west-facing slopes. The explanation in this case is
almost certainly related to simple climatic factors. South-facing
locations inevitably benefit from the maximum exposure to temperatures in
all seasons of the year. Protection from winds was no doubt an equally
important factor, in an area where the prevailing wind direction is mainly
from the west, and where the coldest and harshest winds come mainly from
the north. This would no doubt have been an especially crucial factor
during the winter months when local temperatures during the colder periods
of the Upper Pleistocene could well have fallen below -20 C. Even today
local temperature differences of up to 25 C can occur between the north and
south facing slopes of certain river valleys in the Perigord." ~ Paul C.
Mellars, The Neanderthal Legacy, (Princeton: University Press, 1996), p.250
The Neanderthals were smart enough to plan for the warm side of the valley.
As to Siberia today it gets down to 100 F in the winters See Critchfield,
General Climatology, p. 210. Even larger areas get down to -50
F.(everything north of 50 deg. latitude.This region extends from the Urals
west.
glenn
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm