ABSTRACT

Focusing on Iceland, and using documentary historical evidence, this paper provides an overview of weather fluctuations, related extremes, the incidence of sea ice, and the impact of these on the economy and on society as a whole. It has been suggested that the period AD 1600 to 1900 was more or less uniformly severe with regard to the climate, with heavy sea-ice incidence. However, a careful scrutiny of the sources indicates that there was, in fact, a great deal of climatic variability from early settlement times onwards. The main focus here is ca. AD 1500 to 1700. However, reference is also made to the plagues of the fifteenth century that continued to have impacts on society through later centuries. Although it is clear that the early and latter decades of the seventeenth century were climatically severe years with much ice present, from ca. 1640 to ca. 1680 there appears to have been little sea ice off Iceland’s coasts. This corresponds to a mild period with regard to temperature from ca. 1640 to 1670. The many famine years that occurred were undoubtedly brought about by the indirect effects of climate, but these were compounded by socioeconomic factors, such as unfavourable trade policies.