Editing Little Ice Age (section)

===Europe===
[[File:16 The Frost Fair.JPG|thumb|upright=1.4|[[River Thames frost fair]], 1684]]

[[Drangajökull]], Iceland's northernmost glacier, reached its maximum extent during the LIA around 1400 CE.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Harning |first1=David J. |last2=Geirsdóttir |first2=Áslaug |last3=Miller |first3=Gifford H. |last4=Anderson |first4=Leif |date=15 November 2016 |title=Episodic expansion of Drangajökull, Vestfirðir, Iceland, over the last 3 ka culminating in its maximum dimension during the Little Ice Age |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379116304024 |journal=[[Quaternary Science Reviews]] |language=en |volume=152 |pages=118–131 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.10.001 |bibcode=2016QSRv..152..118H |access-date=5 June 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}</ref>
[[File:La Seine le 3 Janvier 1880 - Vue du quai Saint-Michel.jpg|thumb|The [[Seine]] frozen, 3 January 1880. At the end of the 19th century, the climate was still colder than today.]]
The [[Baltic Sea]] froze over twice, in 1303 and 1306–1307, and years followed of "unseasonable cold, storms and rains, and a rise in the level of the Caspian Sea".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tuchman |first=Barbara Wertheim (1912–1989) |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1259448710 |title=A distant mirror: the calamitous 14th century |publisher=Ballantine |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-241-97297-7 |pages=24 |language=en |oclc=1259448710}}</ref> The Little Ice Age brought colder winters to parts of Europe and North America. Farms and villages in the [[Swiss Alps]] were destroyed by encroaching glaciers during the mid-17th century.<ref name="aspects">{{cite book |author=Cowie |first=Jonathan |title=Climate change: biological and human aspects |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-521-69619-7 |page=164 |language=en}}</ref> Canals and rivers in Great Britain and the Netherlands were frequently frozen deeply enough to support ice skating and winter festivals.<ref name="aspects" /> As trade needed to continue during the prolonged winter often spanning 5 months, merchants equipped their boer style boats with planks and skates (runners), hence the [[iceboat]] was born. The first [[River Thames frost fairs|River Thames frost fair]] was in 1608 and the last in 1814. Changes to the bridges and the addition of the [[Thames Embankment]] have affected the river's flow and depth and greatly diminish the possibility of further freezes.<ref>{{cite web | last=Davies | first=Caroline | title=Part of River Thames freezes amid sub-zero temperatures | website=The Guardian | date=12 February 2021 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/12/part-of-river-thames-freezes-amid-sub-zero-temperatures | access-date=12 February 2021}}</ref><ref name="lock1">{{Cite journal |last1=Lockwood |first1=M. |display-authors=etal |date=April 2017 |title=Frost fairs, sunspots and the Little Ice Age |url=https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/69443/ |journal=[[Astronomy & Geophysics]] |language=en |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=2.17–2.23 |doi=10.1093/astrogeo/atx057 |issn=2115-7251|doi-access=free }}</ref>

[[File:Tåget över stora bält.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|[[March Across the Belts]], 1658|left]]
In 1658, a Swedish army [[March Across the Belts|marched through Denmark and across the Great Belt]] to attack [[Copenhagen]] from the west. 

The winter of 1794–1795 was particularly harsh: the French invasion army under [[Pichegru]] marched on the frozen rivers of the Netherlands, and the Dutch fleet was locked in the ice in [[Den Helder]] harbour.

Sea ice surrounding [[Iceland]] extended for miles in every direction and closed harbors to shipping. The population of Iceland fell by half, but that may have been caused by [[skeletal fluorosis]] after the eruption of [[Laki]] in 1783.<ref name="Stone2004">{{cite journal |last1=Stone |first1=R. |year=2004 |title=Volcanology: Iceland's Doomsday Scenario? |journal=Science |volume=306 |issue=5700 |pages=1278–1281 |doi=10.1126/science.306.5700.1278 |pmid=15550636 |s2cid=161557686}}</ref> Iceland also suffered failures of cereal crops and people moved away from a grain-based diet.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gestgjafinn.is/english/nr/349|first=Nanna |last=Rögnvaldardóttir |title=What Did They Eat? – Icelandic food from the Settlement through the Middle Ages|website=Gestgjafinn|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220165654/http://www.gestgjafinn.is/english/nr/349|archive-date=20 February 2012}}</ref> 

After [[Greenland]]'s climate became colder and stormier around 1250, the diet of the Norse Viking settlements there steadily shifted away from agricultural sources. By around 1300, [[Pinniped|seal]] hunting provided over three quarters of their food.  By 1350, there was reduced demand for their exports, and trade with Europe fell away. The last document from the settlements dates from 1412, and over the following decades, the remaining Europeans left in what seems to have been a gradual withdrawal, which was caused mainly by economic factors such as increased availability of farms in Scandinavian countries.<ref name="www.spiegel.de">{{Cite web |last=Stockinger |first=Günther |date=10 January 2012 |title=Archaeologists Uncover Clues to Why Vikings Abandoned Greenland |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/archaeologists-uncover-clues-to-why-vikings-abandoned-greenland-a-876626.html |access-date=12 January 2013 |work=[[Der Spiegel]]}}</ref> Greenland was largely cut off by ice from 1410 to the 1720s.<ref name="SVS Science Story: Ice Age">{{cite web| publisher=NASA Scientific Visualization Studio | title=SVS Science Story: Ice Age |url=http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/stories/iceage_20011207/ | access-date=2 August 2007}}</ref>

Between 1620 and 1740, the Yzeron Basin in the [[Massif Central]] of France witnessed a phase of decreased [[fluvial sediment processes|fluvial activity]]. This decline in fluvial activity is believed to be linked to a multidecennial phase of droughts in the western Mediterranean.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Delile |first1=Hugo |last2=Schmitt |first2=Laurent |last3=Jacob-Rousseau |first3=Nicolas |last4=Grosprêtre |first4=Loïc |last5=Privolt |first5=Grégoire |last6=Preusser |first6=Frank |date=15 March 2016 |title=Headwater valley response to climate and land use changes during the Little Ice Age in the Massif Central (Yzeron basin, France) |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169555X16300095 |journal=[[Geomorphology (journal)|Geomorphology]] |volume=257 |pages=179–197 |doi=10.1016/j.geomorph.2016.01.010 |bibcode=2016Geomo.257..179D |access-date=21 April 2023}}</ref>

In southwestern Europe, a negative [[North Atlantic oscillation]] (NAO) combined with increased aridity caused an increase in wind-driven sediment deposition during the LIA.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Costas |first1=Susana |last2=Jerez |first2=Sonia |last3=Trigo |first3=Ricardo M. |last4=Goble |first4=Ronald |last5=Rebêlo |first5=Luís |date=24 May 2012 |title=Sand invasion along the Portuguese coast forced by westerly shifts during cold climate events |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379112001217 |journal=[[Quaternary Science Reviews]] |volume=42 |pages=15–28 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.03.008 |bibcode=2012QSRv...42...15C |hdl=10400.9/1848 |access-date=30 August 2023|hdl-access=free }}</ref>

[[File:Bartholomeus Johannes van Hove, Pompenburg met Hofpoort in de winter.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.4|Winter skating on the main canal of Pompenburg, [[Rotterdam]] in 1825, shortly before the minimum, by Bartholomeus Johannes van Hove]]
In his 1995 book, the early climatologist [[Hubert Lamb]] said that in many years, "snowfall was much heavier than recorded before or since, and the snow lay on the ground for many months longer than it does today."<ref name="Lamb1995">{{Cite book |last=Lamb |first=Hubert H. |title=Climate, history and the modern world |publisher=Routledge |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-415-12734-9 |location=London, England |pages=211–241 |language=en |chapter=The little ice age}}</ref> In [[Lisbon]], Portugal, snowstorms were much more frequent than today, and one winter in the 17th century produced eight snowstorms.{{cn|reason=Previously cited a web forum, which is not a [[WP:RS|reliable source]]|date=February 2025}} Many springs and summers were cold and wet but with great variability between years and groups of years. That was particularly evident during the "Grindelwald Fluctuation" (1560–1630); the rapid cooling phase was associated with more erratic weather, including increased storminess, unseasonal snowstorms, and droughts.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Evan T. |last2=Hewlett |first2=Rose |last3=Mackay |first3=Anson W. |date=5 May 2021 |title=Weird weather in Bristol during the Grindelwald Fluctuation (1560–1630) |journal=Weather |volume=76 |issue=4 |pages=104–110 |bibcode=2021Wthr...76..104J |doi=10.1002/wea.3846 |s2cid=225239334 |doi-access=free|hdl=1983/28c52f89-91be-4ae4-80e9-918cd339da95 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Crop practices throughout Europe had to be altered to adapt to the shortened and less reliable growing season, and there were many years of scarcity and [[famine]]. One was the [[Great Famine of 1315–1317]], but that may have been before the Little Ice Age.<ref>{{cite book |first=Karen J. |last=Cullen |title=Famine in Scotland: The 'Ill Years' of The 1690s |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=RiLjHZdt-sMC|page=20}} |date=2010 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-3887-1 |page=20}}</ref> According to Elizabeth Ewan and Janay Nugent, "Famines in France 1693–94, Norway 1695–96 and Sweden 1696–97 claimed roughly 10 percent of the population of each country. In Estonia and Finland in 1696–97, losses have been estimated at a fifth and a third of the national populations, respectively."<ref>{{cite book |first1=Elizabeth |last1=Ewanu |first2=Janay |last2=Nugent |title=Finding the Family in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=6oOCfHxQDtwC|page=153}} |year=2008 |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-0-7546-6049-1 |page=153}}</ref> [[Viticulture]] disappeared from some northern regions, and storms caused serious flooding and loss of life. Some of them resulted in the [[Saint Marcellus's flood|permanent loss of large areas of land from the Danish, German, and Dutch coasts]].<ref name="Lamb1995"/>

The violinmaker [[Antonio Stradivari]] produced his instruments during the Little Ice Age. The colder climate may have caused the wood that was used in his [[violins]] to be denser than in warmer periods and to contribute to the tone of his instruments.<ref name="Whitehouse2003">{{Cite news |last=Whitehouse |first=David |title=Stradivarius' sound 'due to Sun' |date=17 December 2003 |publisher=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/science/nature/3323259.stm}}</ref> According to the science historian [[James Burke (science historian)|James Burke]], the period inspired such novelties in everyday life as the widespread use of buttons and button-holes, as well as knitting of custom-made undergarments for the better covering and insulating of the body. Chimneys were invented to replace open fires in the centre of communal halls to allow houses with multiple rooms to have the separation of masters from servants.<ref>{{cite episode |title=Thunder in the Skies |series=[[Connections (British documentary)|Connections]]|first1=James |last1=Burke|network=BBC |date=21 September 1978}}</ref>

''The Little Ice Age'', by the anthropologist [[Brian Fagan]] of the [[University of California at Santa Barbara]], describes the plight of European peasants from 1300 to 1850: famines, [[hypothermia]], [[bread riots]] and the rise of despotic leaders brutalizing an increasingly dispirited peasantry. In the late 17th century, agriculture had dropped off dramatically: "Alpine villagers lived on bread made from ground nutshells mixed with [[barley]] and oat flour."<ref name="Fagan">{{harvnb|Fagan|2001}}.</ref> Historian [[Wolfgang Behringer]] has linked intensive [[witch hunt|witch-hunting]] episodes in Europe to agricultural failures during the Little Ice Age.<ref name=Behringer1999/>

[[File:Vinckboons Landscape with skaters.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|[[David Vinckboons]], ''Winter Landscape with Skaters and Ice-Sailing'' (c. 1615)]]
''The Frigid Golden Age'', by the environmental historian [[Dagomar Degroot]] of [[Georgetown University]], points out that some societies thrived, but others faltered during the Little Ice Age. In particular, the Little Ice Age transformed environments around the [[Dutch Republic]] and made them easier to exploit in commerce and conflict. The Dutch were resilient, even adaptive, in the face of weather that devastated neighboring countries. Merchants exploited harvest failures, military commanders took advantage of shifting wind patterns, and inventors developed technologies that helped them profit from the cold. The 17th-century [[Dutch Golden Age]] therefore owed much to its people's flexibility in coping with the changing climate.<ref>Dagomar Degroot, ''The Frigid Golden Age: Climate Change, the Little Ice Age, and the Dutch Republic, 1560–1720'' (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018) {{ISBN|978-1-108-41931-4}}.{{page needed|date=July 2021}}</ref>

==== Cultural responses ====
Historians have argued that cultural responses to the consequences of the Little Ice Age in Europe consisted of violent [[scapegoating]].<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last1=Oster |first1=Emily |year=2004 |title=Witchcraft, weather and economic growth in Renaissance Europe |journal=[[Journal of Economic Perspectives]] |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=215–228 |citeseerx=10.1.1.526.7789 |doi=10.1257/089533004773563502 |jstor=3216882 |s2cid=22483025 |ssrn=522403}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite book |last=Behringer |first=Wolfgang |title=A Cultural History of Climate |publisher=Wiley |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7456-4529-2 |pages=121–167 |language=en |chapter=Cultural Consequences of the Little Ice Age}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |chapter=The Little Ice Age |title=Global Crisis: War, Climate Change, & Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century |last=Parker |first=Geoffrey |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-300-20863-4 |pages=3–25 }}</ref><ref name="Behringer1999">{{cite journal |last1=Behringer |first1=Wolfgang |date=September 1999 |title=Climatic change and witch-hunting: the impact of the Little Ice Age on mentalities |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1005554519604 |journal=[[Climatic Change (journal)|Climatic Change]] |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=335–351 |doi=10.1023/A:1005554519604 |bibcode=1999ClCh...43..335B |s2cid=189869470 |access-date=11 November 2023}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{cite journal |last1=Lehmann |first1=Hartmut |year=1988 |title=The Persecution of Witches as Restoration of Order: The Case of Germany, 1590s–1650s |journal=[[Central European History]] |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=107–121 |doi=10.1017/S000893890001270X |s2cid=145501088}}</ref> The prolonged cold, dry periods brought drought upon many European communities and resulted in poor crop growth, poor livestock survival, and increased activity of pathogens and disease vectors.<ref name=":02">{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/203592 |pmid=11617361 |jstor=203592 |title=Climatic Variability and the European Mortality Wave of the Early 1740s |journal=The Journal of Interdisciplinary History |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=1–30 |last1=Post |first1=John D. |year=1984}}</ref> Disease intensified under the same conditions that unemployment and economic difficulties arose: prolonged cold, dry seasons. Disease and unemployment generated a lethal positive feedback loop.<ref name=":02" /> Although the communities had some contingency plans, such as better crop mixes, emergency grain stocks, and international food trade, they did not always prove effective.<ref name=":1" /> Communities often lashed out via violent crimes, including robbery and murder. Accusations of sexual offenses also increased, such as [[adultery]], [[bestiality]], and [[rape]].<ref name=":2" /> Europeans sought explanations for the famine, disease, and social unrest that they were experiencing, and they blamed the innocent. Evidence from several studies indicate that increases in violent actions against marginalized groups, which were held responsible for the Little Ice Age, overlap with the years of particularly cold, dry weather.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=Behringer1999/><ref name=":1" />

One example of the violent scapegoating occurring during the Little Ice Age was the resurgence of [[witch-hunt|witchcraft trials]]. Oster (2004) and Behringer (1999) argue that the resurgence was brought by the climatic decline. Prior to the Little Ice Age, witchcraft was considered an insignificant crime, and victims (the supposed witches) were rarely accused.<ref name=Behringer1999/> But beginning in the 1380s, just as the Little Ice Age began, European populations began to link magic and weather-making.<ref name=Behringer1999/> The first systematic witch hunts began in the 1430s, and by the 1480s, it was widely believed that witches should be held accountable for poor weather.<ref name=Behringer1999/> Witches were blamed for direct and indirect consequences of the Little Ice Age: livestock epidemics, cows that gave too little milk, late frosts, and unknown diseases.<ref name=":2" /> In general, the number of witchcraft trials rose as the temperature dropped, and trials decreased when temperature increased.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=Behringer1999/> The peaks of witchcraft persecutions overlap with the hunger crises that occurred in 1570 and 1580, the latter lasting a decade.<ref name=Behringer1999/> The trials targeted primarily poor women, many of them widows. Not everybody agreed that witches should be persecuted for weather-making, but such arguments focused primarily not upon whether witches existed but upon whether witches had the capability to control the weather.<ref name=Behringer1999/><ref name=":1" /> The [[Catholic Church]] in the [[Early Middle Ages]] argued that witches could not control the weather because they were mortals, not God, but by the mid-13th century, most people agreed with the idea that witches could control natural forces.<ref name=":1" />

Jewish populations were also blamed for climatic deterioration during the Little Ice Age.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5" /> The Western European states experienced waves of [[anti-Semitism]], directed against the main religious minority in their otherwise Christian societies.<ref name=":2" /> There was no direct link made between Jews and the weather; they were blamed only for indirect consequences such as disease.<ref name=":2" /> Outbreaks of the [[Black Death]] were often blamed on Jews. In Western European cities during the 1300s, [[Persecution of Jews during the Black Death|Jewish populations were murdered]] to stop the spread of the plague.<ref name=":2" /> Rumors spread that Jews were either poisoning wells themselves, or telling [[leprosy|lepers]] to poison the wells.<ref name=":2" /> To escape persecution, some Jews converted to Christianity, while others migrated to the [[Ottoman Empire]], [[Italy in the Middle Ages|Italy]] or the [[Holy Roman Empire]], where they experienced greater toleration.<ref name=":2" />

Some populations blamed the cold periods and the resulting famine and disease during the Little Ice Age on a general divine displeasure.<ref name=":3" /> Particular groups took the brunt of the burden in attempts to cure it.<ref name=":3" /> In Germany, regulations were imposed upon activities such as gambling and [[alcohol law|drinking]], which disproportionately affected the lower class and women were forbidden from showing their knees.<ref name=":3" /> Other regulations affected the wider population, such as prohibiting dancing, sexual activities and moderating food and drink intake.<ref name=":3" /> In Ireland, Catholics blamed the [[Reformation in Ireland|Reformation]] for the bad weather. The ''[[Annals of Loch Cé]]'', in its entry for 1588, describes a midsummer snowstorm as "a wild apple was not larger than each stone of it" and blames it on the presence of a "wicked, heretical, bishop in Oilfinn", the [[Protestant]] [[Bishop of Elphin]], [[John Lynch (bishop of Elphin)|John Lynch]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T100010B/text012.html |title=Part 12 of ''Annals of Loch Cé'' |website=Corpus of Electronic Texts |publisher=University College Cork}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qcCxCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA36 |title=Reformations in Ireland: Tradition and Confessionalism, 1400–1690 |first=Samantha A. |last=Meigs |date= 1997 |publisher=Springer |via=Google Books |isbn=978-1-349-25710-2 }}</ref>

====Depictions of winter in European painting====

[[File:Reverend Robert Walker (1755 - 1808) Skating on Duddingston Loch.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''[[The Skating Minister|The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch]]'', attributed to [[Henry Raeburn]], 1790s]]
William James Burroughs analyzes the depiction of winter in paintings, as does [[Hans Neuberger]].<ref name=neu1>{{cite book|title=Frozen Earth: The Once and Future Story of Ice Ages|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=W2eDDMIeqpoC|page=225}} |first=Douglas |last=Macdougall |publisher=University of California Press |year=2004|page=225 |isbn=978-0-520-24824-3}}</ref> Burroughs asserts that it occurred almost entirely from 1565 to 1665 and was associated with the climatic decline from 1550 onwards. Burroughs claims that there had been almost no depictions of winter in art, and he "hypothesizes that the unusually harsh winter of 1565 inspired great artists to depict highly original images and that the decline in such paintings was a combination of the 'theme' having been fully explored and mild winters interrupting the flow of painting."<ref name="Earth Environments p. 863">{{cite book|first1=David |last1=Huddart|first2=Tim |last2=Stott|title=Earth Environments: Past, Present and Future|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=ohpdmnPFlHEC|page=863}}|year=2010|page=863|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-0-470-74960-9}}</ref> Wintry scenes, which entail technical difficulties in painting, have been regularly and well handled since at least the early 15th century by artists in [[illuminated manuscript]] cycles that show the ''[[Labours of the Months]]'', typically placed on the calendar pages of [[book of hours|books of hours]]. January and February are typically shown as snowy, as in ''February'' in the famous cycle in the {{lang|fr|[[Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry]]}}, painted in 1412–1416 and illustrated below. Since [[landscape painting]] had not yet developed as an independent genre in art, the absence of other winter scenes is not remarkable. On the other hand, snowy winter landscapes, particularly stormy seascapes, became artistic genres in the [[Dutch Golden Age painting]] during the coldest and stormiest decades of the Little Ice Age.<ref name="deg254"/> Most modern scholars believe them to be full of symbolic messages and metaphors, which would have been clear to contemporary viewers.<ref name="deg254">{{cite book |author=Degroot |first=Dagomar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aqhJDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA254 |title=The Frigid Golden Age: Climate Change, the Little Ice Age, and the Dutch Republic, 1560–1720 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-108-41931-4 |location=New York |page=254 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Hunters in the Snow (Winter) - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[The Hunters in the Snow]]'' by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]], 1565]]
All of the famous winter landscape paintings by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]], such as ''[[The Hunters in the Snow]]'' and the ''[[Massacre of the Innocents (Bruegel)|Massacre of the Innocents]]'', are thought to have been painted around 1565. His son [[Pieter Brueghel the Younger]] (1564–1638) also painted many snowy landscapes, but according to Burroughs, he "slavishly copied his father's designs. The derivative nature of so much of this work makes it difficult to draw any definite conclusions about the influence of the winters between 1570 and 1600".<ref name="Earth Environments p. 863"/><ref name="Information1980">{{cite magazine |title=The art of the weather |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=ainC3-wuz_kC|page=768}} |last=Burroughs |first=William |magazine=New Scientist |date=18-25 December 1980 |volume=88 |number=1232–1233 |pages=768–771 |issn=0262-4079 }}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="lock1"/> Bruegel the Elder painted ''Hunters in the Snow'' in Antwerp, so the mountains in the picture probably mean it was based on drawings or memories from crossing of the [[Alps]] during his trip to Rome in 1551–1552. It is one of 5 known surviving paintings, probably from a series of 6 or 12, known as "the Twelve Months", that Breugel was commissioned to paint by a wealthy patron in [[Antwerp]], [[Nicolaes Jonghelinck]] (''Hunters in the Snow'' being for January): none of the other four that survive show a snow-covered landscape and both ''[[The Hay Harvest]]'' (July) and ''[[The Harvesters (painting)|The Harvesters]]'' (August) depict warm summer days. Even ''[[The Return of the Herd]]'' (thought to be the painting for November) and ''[[The Gloomy Day]]'' (known to be for February) show landscapes free of snow.<ref name="lock1"/>

[[File:Hendrick Avercamp - Winterlandschap met ijsvermaak.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|''Winter landscape with iceskaters'', {{circa|1608}}, [[Hendrick Avercamp]]|left]]
Burroughs says that snowy subjects return to [[Dutch Golden Age painting]] with works by [[Hendrick Avercamp]] from 1609 onwards. There is a hiatus between 1627 and 1640, which is before the main period of such subjects from the 1640s to the 1660s. That relates well with climate records for the later period. The subjects are less popular after about 1660, but that does not match any recorded reduction in severity of winters and may reflect only changes in taste or fashion. In the later period between the 1780s and 1810s, snowy subjects again became popular.<ref name="Earth Environments p. 863"/> Neuberger analyzed 12,000 paintings, held in American and European museums and dated between 1400 and 1967, for cloudiness and darkness.<ref name=neu1/> His 1970 publication shows an increase in such depictions that corresponds to the Little Ice Age,<ref name=neu1/> which peaks between 1600 and 1649.<ref name="John1999">{{cite book |last1=Thornes |first1=John E. |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=gbElMV-jhzQC|page=31}} |title=John Constable's skies: a fusion of art and science |last2=Constable |first2=John |publisher=Continuum International |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-902459-02-8 |page=32 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Winter (Adriaen van de Venne).jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Winter ([[Adriaen van de Venne]]) 1614]]
Paintings and contemporary records in Scotland demonstrate that [[curling]], [[ice skating]] and [[Iceboat|icesailing]] were popular outdoor winter sports, with curling dating to the 16th century and becoming widely popular in the mid-19th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.paperclip.org.uk/kilsythweb/Communityresources/Curlinghistory.htm |title=Kilsyth Curling |access-date=11 September 2010 |archive-date=5 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205002421/http://www.paperclip.org.uk/kilsythweb/Communityresources/Curlinghistory.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> An outdoor curling pond constructed in [[Gourock]] in the 1860s remained in use for almost a century, but increasing use of indoor facilities, problems of vandalism, and milder winters led to the pond being abandoned in 1963.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gourockcurlers.co.uk/clubh.htm |title=The Story so Far!!! |year=2009 |publisher=Gourock Curling Club |access-date=11 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425051310/http://www.gourockcurlers.co.uk/clubh.htm |archive-date=25 April 2012 }}</ref>

==== General Crisis of the seventeenth century ====
[[The General Crisis]] of the seventeenth century in Europe was a period of inclement weather, crop failure, economic hardship, extreme intergroup violence, and high mortality linked to the Little Ice Age. Episodes of social instability track the cooling with a time lapse of up to 15 years, and many developed into armed conflicts, such as the [[Thirty Years' War]] (1618–1648).<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal |last1=Zhang |first1=David D. |last2=Lee |first2=Harry F. |last3=Wang |first3=Cong |last4=Li |first4=Baosheng |last5=Pei |first5=Qing |last6=Zhang |first6=Jane |last7=An |first7=Yulun |date=18 October 2011 |title=The causality analysis of climate change and large-scale human crisis |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=108 |issue=42 |pages=17296–17301 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1104268108 |pmc=3198350 |pmid=21969578 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The war started as a war of succession to the Bohemian throne. Animosity between [[Protestants]] and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire (most of which is now in Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic) added fuel to the fire. It soon escalated to a huge conflict that involved all the major European powers and devastated much of Germany. When the war ended, some regions of the Holy Roman Empire had seen their population drop by as much as 70%.<ref>{{Cite book |last=National Geographic |title=Essential Visual History of the World |publisher=National Geographic Society |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4262-0091-5 |pages=190–191 |language=en-us}}</ref>