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1165 August
'this accursed horse'
"There was a great tempest in the province of York ... many people saw the old enemy taking the lead in that tempest: he was in the form of a black horse of large size, and always kept hurrying towards the sea, where he was followed by thunder and lightning, and fearful noises and destructive hail. The footprints of this accursed horse were of a very enormous size, especially on the hill near the town of Scardeburch, from which he gave a leap into the sea; and here for a whole year afterwards, there were plainly visible, the imprint of each foot being deeply graven in the earth. The same tempest destroyed a mill on the River Severn, with its inhabitants, with the exception of a single monk..."
(Chronicle of Melrose)
1233 June
'Two huge dragons'
"About the same time, to wit, in June, in the south parts of England near to the sea coast, two huge dragons appeared fighting in the air, and after a long fight the one overcame the other, and followed him, fleeing into the depths of the sea, and so they were seen no more."
(Holinshed)
1251 May 19
'A torch like a kind of drawn sword'
"On St. Dunstan's day there was a marvellous sore tempest of weather, the air being darkened on every side from the four corners thereof, and withal chanced such a thunder as few the like had been heard of ... This was at Windsor, where in the park, oaks were rent asunder, and turned up by the roots, and much hurt done; as mills with the millers in them, sheepfolds with their shepherds, and plowmen, and such as were going by the way were destroyed and beaten down."
(Holinshed)
"At St. Albans (the brethren of the Minors) saw meeting them a torch like a kind of drawn sword, and thunder and a dreadful murmuring ... And turning aside they signed themselves with the cross and began to invoke the Holy Ghost by singing 'Veni, Creator Spiritus' ...and the thunder and lightning were dulled and the fire passed away from them while they themselves were uninjured."
(Matthew Paris)
1585 September 25
'cruell tempeste'
Hay in Herefordshire: "...there appeared a most wonderfull and dreadfull sight of two great cloudes, the one being black, which arising issued from the North, the other being white, came from the South part, which meeting together seemed to rend the Skie with their ratling ... was seen flying an innumerable companie of black Crowes ... and not long before the vanishing of these cloudes was heard so rare and horrible roaring ... the cryes of beares and lyons: yea and that so terrible that it was rather judged to have been the skritching of some malevolent hellish and furious fiends: these supposed Crowes were of divers credible persons visibly seen to rent and tear whole houses, barnes and stables, ye and to pull out whole and huge trees by the rootes ... yea and a most dreadful sight some of the rafters and pieces thereof were carried up in the aire, and after that never sithens seene..."
(Journal of Meteorology, 7, 70, 1982)
1761 May 4
'a noise like constant thunder'
"...a most violent whirlwind of that kind commonly known by the name of Typhones, passed down Ashley river, and fell upon the shipping in Rebellion road, with incredible violence. This terrible phaenomenon plough'd Ashley river to the bottom, and laid the channel bare. It made a noise like constant thunder; its diameter was judged to be about 300 fathoms, and its height 35 degrees ... There were 45 sail of ships in the road, five of which were sunk, and His Majesty's ship the Dolphin, with 11 others, lost their masts, &c. This tremendous column was first seen about noon, upwards of 50 miles W. by S. of Charles-Town (South Carolina,) and destroyed in its course houses, plantations, men, and cattle. In several parts every tree and shrub was torn up; great quantities of branches and limbs of trees were seen furiously driven about, and agitated in the body of the column as it passed along."
(Gentleman's Magazine, July 1761)
1772 April 12
'a whirlwind passed'
"A whirlwind passed from the N.E. (at Teawa, Abyssinia) which seemed high in the atmosphere ... at the part next the earth it was in the shape of a funnel; and at its broadest part, where it whirled the dust, it might be about seven or nine feet thick, and not above half a foot where it touched the ground. It passed with a great noise along the plain, though slowly, and I suppose a quarter of a mile in eight minutes, frequently growing larger and smaller in the part near the ground, and increasing its force and velocity in whirling. When the white cloud above dispersed, it ceased immediately. The upper part was not dust, but cloud. Kites passing through the cloudy part did not seem affected, though it overthrew houses and my tent as it passed, and violently moved the earth and every shrub within its vortex."
(Gentleman's Magazine, 1809)
1796 July
'It was a fearful sight'
Gulf of Finland, between Kronstadt and Lubek: "In the north-west I saw a mass of clouds, blue-black in colour, and immediately afterwards two terrifying cones. The cones turned into columns of water and one of these monsters advanced towards us. It was a fearful sight. The drops, of which the cylinder consisted, did not fall vertically but seemed to flow down with a screw-like motion only to wind upwards again. Its base seemed to rest in a hollow bowl at the edge of which the sea boiled furiously. The noise was deafening. However, the monster roared harmlessly above and past us and only splashed us with a few cherry-sized raindrops, leaving behind a smell of sulphur and saltpetre."
(Prof. C.H.Wolke; D.V.Nalivkin)
1800 May 4
'the sound of a mighty wind'
(Morton, near Bourne, Lincolnshire). "My well-disposed neighbours were already assembled in the church, for the purpose of paying their weekly adorations to the Supreme Being. Alarmed at the approaching darkness, and at the sound of a mighty wind, some ran into the porch, others into the church-yard, to see the approaching storm. While thus assembled, our attention was suddenly arrested by a vast column of smoke, which seemed to arise from the ground, about a Southern mile from the place where we stood ... With several others I immediately ascended the steeple; but here description must for ever fall short; no mind can comprehend, no tongue can tell, no pen can represent the scene now exhibited to our astonished sight. I was just in time to have a better view of the phaenomenon which alarmed us below; nor do I hesitate in believing, it proceeded from the sudden explosion of a large fire-ball, as the smoke was far more transparent, and ascended in a manner very different from what terrestrial matter is accustomed to emit ... The clouds now vaulted over one another in confused impetuousity ... The edifice rocked, the wind roared, the thunder pealed, the lightning went abroad, and Nature seemed struggling for her very existence."
(Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 70, pp. 474-6)
