[Sca-cooks] Harvest times

[James Prescott]

The climate was significantly warmer in the early 13th century.

The "little climatic optimum" lasted from about 750 to about 1215.
It did not instantly get much colder after 1215, though the steady
drop in temperatures did lead to the Europe-wide famine-inducing
cold and stormy weather of 1315-1317.

The temperature at the latitude of Iceland in the mid to late 1200s,
once the cooling was already noticeable, was approximately the same
as it is today.

The increase in the length of the growing season is counter-
intuitively greater the further north one travels.  An increase
in average temperature of 1 degree Celsius extends the northern
growing season by 10 days.  The little climatic optimum being
perhaps 3 degrees warmer, the northern growing season was about
30 days longer.  The increase in the length of the growing season,
plus the increase in temperature, would have moved the harvest time
forward by more than a month.  The length of the day at northern
latitudes would have further amplified this effect.

During the Viking Age (situated within the little climatic optimum)
a chieftain from the Orkney islands (north of Scotland) would
regularly go raiding in his boats after the end of harvesting, not
returning home until the middle of November.  The weather was clearly
temperate enough that late in the year to permit this.


In addition there is the minor matter of the drift of the Julian
calendar, which in the early 13th century was about 6 days. Their
month of August corresponded (approximately) to our August 7 through
September 7.


Thorvald


At 14:39 +0200 2006-05-11, Volker Bach wrote:
>  Salvete
>
>  I'm working on a painted casket for my stuff and found an interesting early
>  13th century cycle of 'Month pictures', but I'm wondering about their
>  provenance. The thing is, they place haying in June, grain harvest in July,
>  threshing in August, which seems a bit early for Northern Europe. The vintage
>  is in October, which tends to be a bit cold and wet for that. Now, I'm not an
>  expert on Europe's microclimates, but I'm sure there will be one here. So I'm
>  wondering: does that generally square with Southern France or Northern Italy?
>  Or is it more Central France/Southern Rhineland? I know it's wrong for my
>  latitudes.
>
>  Grazie
>
>  Giano
>
>
>
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