Tag: Weather

On Weather and History

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Weather often significantly affects history. Fox’s Jesse Waters dismissedclimate change in a not-so-nuanced manner: “It gets hot. It gets cold.” Yet weather matters, and it matters even to historians. I offer an illustration. I have for many years been perplexed by the somberness of Jefferson’s thinking beginning with the spring of 1816 and continuing throughout[…]

When Americans Understood That Weather Was Connected to Larger Forces

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Two hundred years after New England’s first great hurricane, we ask very different questions about the nature of storms. Two hundred years ago this week, the Great September Gale struck New England. The “gale” swamped the coastlines of five states with storm surges up to 15 feet. It reduced dozens of ships in Boston, Providence,[…]