Abstract
Several thousand ships' logbooks havesurvived from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.They provide a valuable source of climaticinformation. This paper takes the Battle of Trafalgaras an example of how this source can be used toprovide a better knowledge and understanding ofweather and climate from those distant times. Thereliability of the non-instrumental climatic recordsof the logbooks is confirmed and a simple statisticalmeasure is used to quantify their degree ofconsistency. Reconstructions of daily weather patternsare made and a zonal index is calculated to representthe circulation patterns of the region. The movementsof pressure systems are plotted and indicate that thezonal index was negative (air pressure increasing fromsouth to north) for most of the month. The storm thatfollowed the battle is identified as one of notableseverity. This extreme behaviour is interpreted withinthe context of longer-term aspects of the contemporaryclimate.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anonymous: undated, Quarta Clase: Fisica Celeste y Observaciones 1799–1813, Biblioteca del Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada en San Fernando, cat. no. 21,577.
Bennett, G.: 1977, The Battle of Trafalgar, Batsford, London.
Boyden, C. J.: 1963, ‘Development of the Jet Stream and Cut-Off Circulations’, Met. Mag. 92, 287–299.
Chenoweth, M.: in press, Historical Marine Data in American and U.K. Archives (1775–1900), Proceedings of the International Workshop on Digitisation and Preparation of Historical Surface Marine Data and Metadata, Toledo, Spain, September 1997, WMO, Geneva.
Desbrière, E.: 1933, The Naval Campaign of 1805: Trafalgar, 2 Vols., (trans. C. Eastwick), Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Font Tullot, I.: 1983, Climatología de España y Portugal, Instituto Nacional de Meteorología, Madrid.
Friendly, A.: 1977, Beaufort of the Admiralty: the Life of Sir Francis Beaufort 1774–1857, Hutchinson, London.
Kington, J.: 1988, The Weather of the 1780s over Europe, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Lamb, H. H.: 1977, Climate: Present, Past and Future. Vol. 2: Climatic History and the Future, Methuen, London.
Lamb, H. H.: 1988, Weather, Climate and Human Affairs: A Book of Essays and Other Papers, Routledge, London.
Lamb, H. H.: 1991, Historic Storms of the North Sea, British Isles and North-West Europe, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Lamb, H. H.: 1995, Climate, History and the Modern World, 2nd edition, Routledge, London.
Mahan, A. T.: 1890, The Influence of Sea Power upon History: 1660–1783, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Mass.
Manley, G.: 1974, ‘Central England Temperatures: Monthly Means 1659–1973’, Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 100, 389–405.
Meteorological Office: 1978, Weather in Home Waters, Vol. III: The Waters around the Azores and off South-West Europe and Off North-West Africa, Meteorological Office, Bracknell.
Oliver, J. and Kington, J. A.: 1970, ‘The Usefulness of Ships' Log-Books in the Synoptic Analysis of Past Climates’, Weather 25, 520–528.
U.S. Department of Energy: 1987, Monthly Mean Pressure Reconstructions for Europe and North America, TRO37, U.S. Department of Energy, Carbon Dioxide Research Division, Washington D.C.
U.S. Navy: 1974, U.S. Navy Marine Atlas of the World. Vol. 1: North Atlantic, NAVAIR 50-IC-528, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.
Warner, O.: 1966, Trafalgar, Pan Books, London.
Wheeler, D. A.: 1985, ‘The Weather of the Battle of Trafalgar’, Weather 40, 338–346.
Wheeler, D. A.: 1987, ‘The Trafalgar Storm: 22–30 October 1805’, Met. Mag. 116, 197–205.
Wheeler, D. A.: 1988, ‘The Use of Ships' Logs in Meteorological Studies: A Test Case’, J. Meteorol. 13, 122–125.
Wheeler, D. A.: 1992a, ‘The Royal Observatory of San Fernando (Cádiz) and its Place in the Development of Meteorological Studies in Spain’, Weather 47, 56–63.
Wheeler, D. A.: 1992b, ‘The Rainfall Record of the San Fernando Observatory (Cádiz) 1805–1988’, J. Meteorol. (U.K.) 17, 82–90.
Wheeler, D. A.: 1995a, ‘El tiempo durante la batalla de Trafalgar, octubre 1805’, Investigaciones Geográficas (Universidad de Alicante) 14, 175–189.
Wheeler, D. A.: 1995b, ‘The Weather Vocabulary of an Eighteenth-Century Mariner: The Logbooks of Nicholas Pocock, 1740–1821’, Weather 50, 298–304, Reprinted in Marine Observer 67, 22–29, 1997.
Wheeler, D. A.: 1995c, ‘Early Instrumental Weather Data from Cádiz: A Study of Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth-Century Records’, Int. J. Clim. 15, 801–810.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wheeler, D. The Weather of the European Atlantic Seaboard During October 1805: An Exercise in Historical Climatology. Climatic Change 48, 361–385 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010789509980
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010789509980