Were winters worse?

Maybe, in some ways, when they didn't receive weather reports on the radio, TV, phone, internet, etc. Farmers and mariners used natural signs. Last winter there wasn't that much snow; January was quite warm in 2024.

- BY NANCY GROSS

This morning, Friday, February 7, I heard on my little weather radio about a snow squall warning for some locations, not here, but they can be dangerous. We experienced one a year ago, by the old Country View Drive-in-scary, surrounded by impenetrable white.

Diaries and newspapers used to be sources of information. The first winter noted locally was that of 1779-80 which was probably the worst in New England's history. Spotty records of it do exist. That January, in Hartford, Conn., the temp averaged a low of -22° and daytime high of -4.5°. No thaw occurred that month. Huge snowdrifts blocked overland travel and most New England harbors froze. On February 11, the temperatures rose above freezing for the first time in over a month.

Here, the intense cold added to the great privation endured during the revolutionary war. If any provisions were to be obtained other than what was on hand, a hazardous journey over the ice to British-occupied Castine was necessary. Seth Webb visited his hunting camp on Kimball Island. From there he went over to Isle au Haut which was then uninhabited. He ascended the mountain and climbed a tree at its summit. The ocean was solid ice as far as the eye could see in any direction.

In the 19th century, the ocean froze almost every year. In the 20th century (and what we have had of the 21st) a big freeze has been the exception. In order to do so, the surface of the water can't be disturbed by high winds, heavy or even moderate seas or much marine traffic. There must be enough rain and snow to dilute the salinity of the surface water. Temperatures have to be low enough to cause freezing.