Winter 1783/84

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The extreme winter of 1783/1784 in the northern hemisphere was the result of natural climatic fluctuations and is considered one of the toughest in Central Europe, but was also unusual in North America and Asia. This was followed by extreme floods in Central Europe in February and March 1784 , which are considered to be one of the greatest natural disasters of the early modern period in this region. The cause for this is seen in particularly sulfur-rich or particularly violent and ash-rich volcanic eruptions that occurred in Iceland .

Volcanic events

At the outbreak of Laki in Iceland (beginning on 8 June 1783 Duration: about 8 months) produced a total of about 130 craters a total volume of about 12 to 15 cubic kilometers of lava. There were also clouds of gas and ash. The extensive amounts of sulfur dioxide emitted reacted with the water droplets from the clouds to form sulphurous acid and sulfuric acid .

This had devastating consequences for the whole country: the cattle died from poisoning; and the famine that arose caused an estimated 9,350 people, more than a fifth of Iceland's population, to die in subsequent years. The outbreak also had an impact in Western Europe , the poisonous aerosol cloud spread over the entire continent, but especially over the British Isles , and was perceived as high altitude smoke or “dry fog”. Records show that the smog hung in the sky for weeks. Symptoms of poisoning made themselves felt through shortness of breath, so that, for example, farmers could hardly go about their field work. Around 25,000 people died in the British Isles alone. The disaster has recently been reconstructed by British researchers.

The eruption of the Asama volcano in Japan in 1783 had only a minor impact on climate changes compared to the eruption of the Laki crater.

Weather events

Winter in North America

Benjamin Franklin reports on a remarkably cold winter in Philadelphia . He was then the American ambassador in Paris and suspected that the cold could be the result of a dust mist in the atmosphere over Europe and North America. The cold was so severe that New York City harbor froze over for ten days and sledges were able to cross Long Island Sound .

Winter in Europe

Steel engraving of the ice flood in Mülheim am Rhein in 1784
Ferdinand Kobell : The destroyed Old Bridge in Heidelberg after the ice drift , 1784
Flood in Würzburg

The winter was extraordinarily cold and snowy throughout Europe. Scientists assume that in 1784 the average temperature was one Kelvin lower than usual.

The frost period lasted a total of 13 weeks in Mainfranken . The cold began in December 1783 and almost all waters in Central Europe froze over. The Great Belt was frozen so bad that you could cross it with a sleigh and wagon. Around the 26./27. In December 1783 the temperatures improved briefly, but fell sharply again by the end of the year. This extreme cold lasted until mid-January 1784. From mid-January to 21/22 February this cold phase was repeatedly interrupted by short phases with slightly milder temperatures. Snow fell frequently during this period.

The winter was very snowy from December to February. From December 24, 1783 to February 21, 29 snowfall events were observed in Mannheim , for example , some of which lasted for days. In some regions the snow grew to a height of more than 1.5 meters, with about 45 centimeters of snow falling in the Rhine-Neckar area on December 27 and 28, 1783 . February also brought a lot of snow and ice.

From the end of December 1783 until January , the whole of Europe was hit by a cold spell that reached from the Black Sea to the Atlantic. It was so cold in France that wolves appeared in villages to prey on cattle. The amount of snow in the winter of 1783/84 restricted agricultural production in various German countries to such an extent that there were serious supply bottlenecks. In order to bridge these shortages, the respective governments intervened controlling. So much grain was stored in Königsberg that there wasn't enough space for it. Several people froze to death in Darmstadt. Ice floes formed on the Saxon Elbe and became thicker and thicker, and on the night of December 28th to 29th the river in front of the Augustus Bridge in Dresden was frozen.

In Frankfurt am Main, in January 1784, because of the persistent severe cold and to support the poor, bread and wood collections were carried out. 14,752 loaves of six pounds each were distributed. In Speyer there was a modest celebration on the frozen Rhine in order to counteract poverty with the proceeds from this benefit event. For fear of a possible ice drift, public prayers were ordered in Cologne and Bamberg. In Stuttgart a ball of air was raised in the courtyard of the military academy , which was illuminated and provided with small fireworks. The proceeds from this event were used to buy wood for the poor in the city, as the prices for it were very high.

On January 7th in Leipzig at seven o'clock in the morning minus 17.5 degrees Réaumur (minus 21.9 degrees Celsius) were measured. In Weida in Vogtland, the Réaumur thermometer showed minus 21 degrees (minus 26.3 degrees Celsius) in the morning, also on January 7th. But even in the cold January 1784 warmer sections were recorded in Saxony. From January 15th to 17th there was a thaw, with a maximum temperature of plus five degrees Celsius was reached.

This meteorological constellation, the alternation from colder to warmer periods, continued in February 1784 and led to a pile of ice on the Elbe, since the cold January section over Germany until the 21/22. February a cold section, repeatedly interrupted by short warmer phases, followed. The strong frost lasted until the end of February 1784, causing the ice masses on the Elbe to pile up to 1.10 meters. In addition, there were considerable snowfalls in the Electorate, which made the supply situation more difficult.

Melting snow

Around February 23, a sudden inrush of warm air melted the enormous masses of snow that had accumulated in winter. This warm air was triggered by a blocking high pressure area over Eastern Europe, which resulted in a southward-oriented circulation in Central Europe . The change in the general weather situation in Main Franconia as well as in large parts of Europe brought warm air masses from western and southern directions. The winter had previously been shaped for a longer than average by the large-scale weather conditions in Central Europe and East , with very cold air masses being brought in from the north and east. The ingress of warm air was characterized by high levels of precipitation as a result of large-scale sliding movements .

Due to the rapid and strong warming, which was accompanied by heavy rainfall, the ice in Germany's rivers broke and dammed in the last days of February 1784. Due to the enormous meltwater masses, the ice jam and the heavy precipitation, the levels began to rise very quickly. The ice drifted simultaneously on all major main and tributaries. To make matters worse, the occasional dew phases caused several ice sheets to slide over one another, which were then frozen again.

After this ingress of warm air, a short time later, due to the renewed change in the general weather situation, the cold set in again, the precipitation subsided and the level sank rapidly. The blocking high had dissolved and the previous weather patterns were able to re-establish themselves. Cold air flowed again from the north and east into Central Europe.

Floods in spring 1784

The flood event is regarded as one of the greatest natural disasters of the early modern period in Central Europe. The flood devastated entire valley ranges and countless bridges were destroyed. It is also known as the “ice drift of the century” or “ice flood” or “winter flood of 1784”.

Cologne was hit by the worst flood ever recorded. When the temperature jump mentioned, the Rhine was frozen solid, while the snowmelt and the breaking ice caused a record level of 13.55 meters - for comparison: the normal level is 3.48 meters. The floods, on which heavy ice floes drifted, devastated large parts of the bank development and all ships. Individual buildings, including fortifications, collapsed due to the floodplain. 65 people died. In Beuel only very few buildings with stone foundations survived the chunks of ice; all half-timbered houses were swept away. The old Bergisch town of Mülheim am Rhein on the right bank of the Rhine, now a district of Cologne, was completely destroyed. The trees of the famous walnut forest on the Namedyer Werth (peninsula since 1857) near Andernach were literally cut off by the ice floes above their roots. The Andernacher Alte Krahnen escaped the catastrophe due to the basal icebreaker built up the Rhine .

The Neckar caused the largest flood in Heidelberg in historical times. The consequences of the flood were exacerbated by the ice drift. In addition to the Old Bridge , 39 buildings were destroyed and 290 damaged. Other communities, above all Neckarhausen , on the further route of the Neckar towards the mouth, including Mannheim city ​​center, were similarly affected . After Seckenheim , the river partly took the route of an old estuary and flooded the Neckarau a few kilometers away .

The Main also caused extreme floods. This flood, the second highest after 1342 ( Magdalenen floods), is classified as a 300 to 500 year event in the central Main area. The high water mark on the town hall portal of Würzburg shows a maximum level for this high water that is 94 cm above that of 1845 and is 173.83  m above sea level. NN is located. Compared to the flood of 1845 registered at the level, the flood of 1784 had a level of 928 centimeters, with a discharge of 2600 m³ / s. In Bamberg , the bank development in the Mühlenviertel fell victim to the greatest flood of all time. The bridges were also badly damaged. In particular, the Seesbrücke, which was only completed in 1756, today's Chain Bridge, with its baroque furnishings, was destroyed by ice floes and tree trunks that were swept away. In Marktbreit , the half-timbered loading crane at that time was destroyed and later replaced by a stone building with an icebreaker.

At the end of February / beginning of March 1784 one of the heaviest spring floods ever recorded occurred in the Bohemian and Saxon Elbe valleys . The Elbe , frozen over for weeks , broke open within a very short time, rose by up to 32 cm per hour and reached a level of 8.57 m in Dresden on March 1 (flow rate 5200 m³ / s). That was the highest level since 1655. In the entire Elbe valley, large areas of cities and villages were flooded. In Dresden the water in the courtyard of the kennel was three feet high. The destructive force of the flood was particularly great due to the force of the floating debris and the ice floes. The Gothic church collapsed in Wegstädtl in Bohemia. The Elbe bridges were badly damaged in Dresden and Meißen . While the cattle could not be saved in many places, the death toll was comparatively low given the severity of the flood. In Meißen, nine people were killed in the floods. The old post road between Meißen and Dresden was relocated to flood-safe areas due to the flood (see Weiberstein ). Although the Elbe was already moving in its normal course on March 6th, the clean-up work turned out to be difficult because the onset of frost covered the flooded houses and areas with a layer of ice. The water levels at that time were not exceeded in many places until the Elbe floods in 1845 . Further down the Elbe, in the area of ​​the Duchy of Magdeburg between Aken and Sandau, extreme floods did not occur until the beginning of April with dike breaches and the like. a. between Cracau and Prester near Magdeburg. The area around the confluence of the Saale and Elbe near Calbe (Saale) and the section north of the city of Jerichow to Sandau were also severely affected, all areas that were particularly affected by the 2013 flood .

After the Lahn in Weilburg destroyed a bridge with a water pipe, what is now the oldest chain bridge on the European continent was built here after the reconstruction .

Smaller rivers such as the Glan in Ulmet (Palatinate) or the Paar in Baar-Ebenhausen (Bavaria) also caused floods.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Time series of air temperature in Germany
  2. ^ R. Williams, J. Moore: Man Against Volcano - The Eruption on Heimaey, Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland. US Dept. of the Interior, Geological Survey, Washington 1976.
  3. ↑ A Sulphurous Stench: Illness and Death in Europe Following the Eruption of the Laki Fissure (PDF; 149 kB).
  4. ↑ Laki in 1783 in The Significant Volcanic Eruption Database of NOAA (Accessed on March 8, 2013).
  5. ↑ John Grattan; Michael Durand; David Gilbertson; F. Brian Pyatt: Human Sickness and Mortality Rates in Relation to the Distant Eruption of Volcanic Gases: Rural England and the 1783 Eruption of the Laki Fissure, Iceland. Case Study, Western Oregon University, pp. 19-23
  6. ^ GA Zielinski, RJ Fiacco, Paul Andrew Mayewski, LD Meeker, S. Whitlow, MS Twickler, MS Germani, K. Endo, M. Yasui: Climatic Impact of the AD 1783 Asama (Japan) Eruption was Minimal: Evidence from the GISP2 Ice Core. (1994). Earth Science Faculty Scholarship, Paper 191 (English, pdf, 492 kB).
  7. ↑ Natural disasters: Some people saw in the fog the harbinger of the end of the world. In: Zeit Online. April 7, 2010, accessed July 6, 2014 .
  8. ↑ Guido Nicolaus Poliwoda: Learning from disasters. Saxony in the fight against the floods Elbe 1784–1845. P. 63.
  9. ↑ Poliwoda, Katastrophen, p. 64.
  10. ↑ Poliwoda, Katastrophen, p. 65.
  11. ↑ Manfred Spata: The millennium flood of 1784 in Bonn and Beuel (= Monument and History Association Bonn-Rechtsrheinisch eV [Ed.]: Small contributions to memorials and history in Bonn on the right bank of the Rhine . Volume 4 ). Bonn 2017, ISBN 978-3-9812164-5-5 (40 pages).
  12. ↑ Werner Fricke: The report by EF Deurer on the ice flood of 1784 . In: Helmut Prückner (Ed.): The old bridge in Heidelberg . Braus, Heidelberg 1988, p. 41-60. Here p. 43 . Original report: Deurer, EF: Complicated description of the great hardship affected by the ice drifts and floods in the cities of Heidelberg, Mannheim and other areas of the Palatinate in January and Hornung in 1784: together with some previously mentioned natural attractions of the previous year. Neue Hof- und Akademische Buchhandlung, 1784, p. 126 ff ., urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb10018562-2 (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek digital).
  13. ↑ see Deurer, EF, oa complete works, especially p. 135 ff.
  14. ↑ Heinz Schiller: Determination of flood probabilities on the navigable Main and supra-regional comparison of the results. Page 229. See also: Literature.
  15. ^ Poliwoda, Disasters.
  16. ↑ Exhibition material “Living with the Elbe. Flood (protection) in Magdeburg and the surrounding area "of the State Archives Saxony-Anhalt in Magdeburg 2014
  17. ↑ History of Weilburg - From the Chain Bridge to the Ernst-Dienstbach-Steg