Jökull - 01.12.1986, Síða 67

most of this year was very good. There were four
summers that were good in most places: 1731, 1733
(see below), 1736 and 1739, and three cold ones:
1737, 1738 and 1740. 1732 was cold in the north but
pleasant in the west. Several autumn seasons were
characterized as “good”, otherwise they wére mostly
wet.
Sea ice occurred in only two years of this decade: in
1732 and 1733. In the first year, a northern source
states: “Drift ice came in the spring and lay close into
land until the end of August when it was seen last”
(B.S. Skagafjarðarsýslá). Western sources do not
rnention the ice. In 1733 also, the ice is only men-
tioned in the north: “Cold near the sea because of
drift ice which lay off the coast all summer” (B.S.
Skagafjarðarsýsla). In spite of the presence of the ice,
the summer of 1733 is mainly described as good by
the sources.or at least, “good at the beginning” (B.S.
Skagafjarðarsýsla). No sea ice is recorded during the
most severe years of the decade, 1737 and 1738.
These were severe for most of the time in all districts.
In 1737, Ölfusvatnsannáll, written in the south, sug-
gested that this was the worst winter since the “white
winter” of 1632 to 1633.
1741-1750
The most obvious features of the 1740s were the
cold weather and severe sea ice (see Figures 2 and 4).
During 1741 to 1750, there were seven years when sea
ice was present (1741, 1742, 1743, 1745, 1748,
1749, 1750). The most severe ice-year was 1745,
when ice came early to the north and west and also
reached the eastern and southern coasts. There were
three winters which appear to have been severe in all
regions: 1742, 1745 and 1750. As may be seen from
Table 1, nine winters during this decade were severe
ln at least one region for part of the winter. The only
winter that was reported good in all available sources
was 1748. Most of the springs during this decade were
severe. The summers were frequently unfavourable,
either dry or wet. In no year is a good summer
reported in all regions (see Table 1). The autumns
were often wet and stormy.
1745 stands out in this decade as having been an
unusually severe year all over the country. The dis-
tinctive feature of the winter seems to have been the
intensity of the frost and the lack of snow. In the
south there was: “No snow until 21 March but great
frost. Frost in the ground was two ells deep” (Ölfus-
vatnsannáll). In the west and northwest it was
recorded as “The severest frost winter that people
remember in recent times” (Grímsstaðaannáll, B.S.
Isafjarðarsýsla). The lack of snow is also reported in
the northwest: “Severe with heavy frosts from the be-
ginning although in some places there was not so
much snow” (B.S. Barðastrandarsýsla). The spring in
the northwest was “almost as harsh as the winter with
cold, frost and snow” (B.S. Barðastrandarsýslá). In
the north it was “extremely severe” (Höskuldsstaða-
annáll). The summer this year was “rather wet” in tlje
south (Ölfusvatnsannáll) and in the north the weather
improved at the end of June. In the east and west it re-
mained severe, with frost in the ground past the end of
August in the west (Grímsstaðaannáll). The autumn
weather seems to have improved somewhat elsewhere,
but in the east, “In September, in Fljótsdal in Múla
district, there was ice one and a half ells deep in the
ground” (B.S. Múlasýsla).
1751-1760
Another decade of very cold weather followed in
the 1750s, with cold years occurring one after the
other from 1751 to 1757 (see Table 2). The last three
years of the decade, 1758, 1759 and 1760, were
reasonably good and mild. According to the sources
used here, sea ice was present in 1751, 1756, 1757,
1759 and 1760. From 1751 to 1757, almost all
springs and winters were severe, at least in part, in
most regions.
The coldest year this decade (and one of the coldest
in the eighteenth century) was 1756. Jón Jónsson re-
corded “severe weather with snow and lack of pasture
all winter”. The winter in the south was “very severe
with frost and snow” (B.S. Árnessýsla) and there was
“a harsher spring than anyone could remember” (B.S.
Árnessýsla). In the west and east the winter was also
severe. Jón Jónsson records that by the “ninth week of
summer” (c. 15 June) the snow had begun to melt but
that there was still snow on the ground three weeks
later. The situation was very similar in other parts of
Iceland. In the south, “the cold and frost were so
severe right up to 6 August that small ponds and
streams froze almost every night, although they
thawed out during the day” (B.S. Árnessýslá). In the
west, one source commented: “The worst thing of all
is this summer’s severity” (B.S. Dalasýsla). Sea ice
surrounded the country this year. It first came to the
north in March, and then spread along the eastern and
southem coasts. One southern source recorded: “Drift
ice came to the south on 24 June and began to break
up on 6 July” (B.S. Árnessýsla). All the northern
sources agree that the ice remained off the north coast
until the end of August. In coastal districts there was
also wet weather associated with the ice: “There was
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