Cautionary Tales of Medieval Living | Climate Change Has Always Existed | Great Sea Storms and Hurricanes

Chroniclers often described extreme weather and other natural disasters in the Middle Ages, sometimes attributing them to divine punishment or supernatural causes. What they were experiencing was what we would call climate change. This week’s topic is great sea storms and hurricanes.

The Two Great Storms of 1287

There was such a ferocious hurricane on England’s south coast that it changed the geography on a single night. It destroyed the Hastings harbor and wiped out the thriving medieval port of Old Winchelsea, which had hundreds of houses, churches, and inns. New Romney, a flourishing port, became a landlocked town when large quantities of small pebbles from Dungeness beach, along with mud and soil, filled the harbor and left New Romney nearly a mile from the sea. Blocked in the town, the River Rother carved a new path to the sea fifteen miles away. Silt and gravel buried the medieval village of New Romney, thus preserving it in modern times.

The St. Lucia flood was a catastrophic storm tide that struck the Netherlands and Northern Germany on December 13–14, 1287. A low-pressure system combined with a high tide caused the North Sea to surge over seawalls and dikes. Experts estimate the storm killed 50,000 to 80,000 people. The flood permanently altered the coastline, leading to the creation of the enormous inland sea, Zuiderzee.

The Great Drowning of Men of 1362

The Saint Marcellus’ flood or Grote Mandrenke (‘Great Drowning of Men’) occurred on January 16, 1362. An Atlantic gale swept in from northwestern Europe, affecting the British Isles to Denmark, and killing at least 25,000. 

Christopher Columbus Great Storms and Hurricanes(1494 and 1502)

Christopher Columbus encountered hurricanes on his second voyage to the New World in 1494 and his fourth voyage in 1502. In 1494, he wrote to Queen Isabella, describing the storm, the first recorded European account of a hurricane. 

In 1502, he tried to warn local governor Don Nicolás de Ovando about an impending hurricane, advising him to keep his fleet in port. Ovando chose to ignore the warning and sent thirty ships toward Spain. The hurricane struck on June 30, 1502, sinking twenty-five of the ships and causing the deaths of approximately five hundred men.