Weather Diaries
Personal sources are diverse and incomplete. If you want to understand their meaning, you have to familiarise yourself with the author's living environment - only in exceptional cases also women - his motivation and his language.
Jan z Kunovic came from a wealthy family in the Moravian town of Kunovice (Kunowitz). He studied at the universities of Olomouc (Olmütz), Leipzig and Bologna and became one of the richest and most influential men of his time in Moravia. From 1531 to 1545, he recorded daily observations in Czech in the right-hand margin of his calendar. Kunovic described temperature conditions, precipitation, cloud cover, wind and weather (Brázdil et al. 2013: 20-22). His observations form the basis for the temperature estimates for Western and Central Europe during this period (Dobrovolný et al. 2010).
Provost Wolfgang Haller (1525-1601) was responsible for the administration of church property in Zurich, i.e. the state redistribution of grain and wine. From 1545 to 1576, he recorded the daily weather conditions in his calendar, a precursor to today's agenda. On 3 January 1573, for example, he wrote: "grimm kalt mit näbel morgens, darnach sunnschyn".
Louis Morin worked as a doctor at the Hôtel Dieu hospital in Paris. From 1665 to 1713, he kept a weather diary in which he took readings from a thermometer and a barometer three times a day. He also recorded the direction and strength of the wind, the direction of origin of the clouds, the origin of the dominant air mass, the speed of the clouds, the degree of cloudiness, the duration and intensity of precipitation as well as fog, hail and thunderstorms. Morin was probably the first observer to take an interest in the air currents prevailing at altitude based on the direction of origin of the clouds. The doctor knew a strictly regulated rhythm of life. He got up at 2 o'clock in the morning and prayed until 5 o'clock. He probably made his first entry in the weather diary at around 6 o'clock. The doctor then looked after his patients until 11 o'clock. He then had lunch. It is unclear whether he documented his second weather observation at this time. In the winter months, he would then read specialised literature in the library until the evening. In the summer months, he looked at the plants in the botanical garden until 2 o'clock in the afternoon before reading. He went to bed at 7 o'clock in the evening, probably not without writing down his third entry in the weather diary. Morin was a single, rather shy loner. His 48 years of careful temperature measurements form the basis of the oldest part of the long temperature series of Paris since 1659 (Rousseau 2012).
Johann Heinrich Fries studied theology and worked at the Zurich Collegium humanitatis from 1676 as a professor (grammar school teacher) for catechesis (confirmation classes), and later also for languages. From 1684, he taught rhetoric at the philosophical-theological college, the Carolinum in Zurich. Fries kept a largely complete weather diary from 1684 to 1718, in which he characterised sky cover, precipitation and temperature conditions using a wide range of different, often overlapping expressions. Fries combined his weather data with chronological records in which he describes the effects of the weather on society. Particularly valuable are his careful observations on the timing of snowfall and snowmelt, from which the duration of snow cover can be estimated, as well as information in which he discusses the effects of the weather on society (Pfister 1977). For example, he wrote about January 1709: On 5 January 1709, there was "wind and rain, from which the snow on the plain carried everyone away". This was followed by a cold snap on the night of 6 January: "In the morning there was fresh snow and it continued to snow until around 12 o'clock. The cold was again greater. Then a very cold night." Fries' chronicles were continued after his death by an unknown hand until March 1721.
The Peter family of winegrowers in Saint-Blaise (NE) recorded the weather for 44 years (1702-1746) and systematically recorded the time of the vine blossom and the grape harvest. The "Receveur" (tithe administrator) Elie Peter (d. 1724) reported on the years 1702 to 1723, while his son, the "Greffier" (clerk) (1700-1746), who is not known by name, continued his father's work until 1728. His brother (?) Pierre (1705-1755) continued the observations until 1746. Elie and his son summarised days with the same or similar weather conditions, such as 12 to 16 April 1705 ("beautiful"), describing conspicuous days - such as heavy frosts - individually. Pierre went into more detail and mentioned, for example, summer snowfalls on the Chaumont (1180 m). In addition to the phenological observations (from 1702), Euro-Climhist also contains the weather descriptions from 1719-1746.
Johann Bernhard Effinger (1701-1772) came from a family of Bernese landed gentry and owned the castle and estate of Wildegg (AG) with 80 hectares of cultivated land and forest. In 1735 he became a member of the Grand Council and served as Schaffner (administrator) of St Vincent's Abbey in Bern from 1747-1753. He devoted himself primarily to his agricultural estates and recorded the weather in this context. He often summarised days with similar conditions under the same term, such as "cold and rain". He regularly mentioned the first snowfall. He characterised longer dry periods with reference to the scarcity of water (Schwarz-Zanetti, Pfister, Müller 1995).