>
>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
>
Just a question, Glenn, is it possible, that there were longtime changes in
climates? I read somewhere that now the North Pole ice cap is melting from
the bottom up, due to global warming. Connected with that would then come
a change of the Gulf stream and thus a severe cooling of Europe, the
article said. Could something like that have happened in the past.
Is there an indication of a change in the angle of the "axle" of the earth?
Is it true that the polarity of the earth changed? If so, how come, and
does it involve climate change? What about the "Ice Age"?
I find these questions interesting, but don't have the time to really
research them. I don't even remember where I read about the above
suggestions in my questions.
Jan de Koning
Willowdale, Ont.