"Weather/daylight in the 13 Colonies during the FIW/AWI" Topic

Does anyone know of an on-line resource (government tables, contemporary almanac or similar) that covers the 13 Colonies/East Coast of the USA, in terms of:

a) typical weather/average temperatures over the 12 months of the year; and

b) the hours of daylight over the same period.

I am looking at three main theatres of operation – North (including Canada); Middle (southern New England to the M-D Line); and South (down to Florida). Current data would be acceptable (ie 2013-14 figures, instead of 1775-83), and if anyone knows of one area that has anomalous weather/temperatures, that would be useful to know.

Many thanks.

It's hard to find online records going back that far. To generate a data table that will cover a wide range of dates, try here:
weather-warehouse.com

I believe that Fischer's "Washington's Crossing" references some data on actual temperatures and weather records that a diarist kept during the Trenton campaign. Some guy ketp meticulous notes on temperature, weather, etc.
I am sure the references would be in the notes.

Thanks for those ideas, guys.

I'm not so much worried about hitting the exact years, just looking for a feel for what the weather/temperature are like in, say, North Carolina in March and April (and then compare that with, for example, New Hampshire in those months).

Are you thinking of buying a house, SM?

August 4, 2014 in Northeastern PA is pretty nice. Last week was hot.

I live in Asheville and it runs about 5-10 degrees cooler here than the rest of the state (NC).
I would be surprised if the ratios have changes since the 1700's between here and New Hampshire.
I'm sure toy soldiers won't notice the difference:)

Daylight numbers would be the same as today (but account for the lack of daylight savings). Same number of hours, but no shift in time. Then again, standard time zones hadn't been implemented yet, either.

Thomas Jefferson supposedly maintained fairly good weather records. The problem might be accessing the specific information you need.

Sounds like someone is planning a scenario or campaign.

Poor Richard's Almanac is a source. Official records were not kept until 1850 and more comprehensive records were kept starting around 1890.

link

link

ipl.org/div/pf/entry/48544

link

link

It's hard to say what the weather was like back then.I believe the 18th.cen. was in what was called the Little Ice Age.Supposedly the winters were brutal in the 18th cen.I know that reading an article on the weather channel a few months back that in the last 50 years the weather on the average has gotten cooler in the winter months down south while the nothern states average temperature has risen.
Mark

I imagine it was just as humid in Virginia during the summer now, as it was in the 18th century.

A couple hundred years is not enough time to have significant climate changes. There have been references to "mini ice ages", as Mark stated above, or prolonged periods of more than usual cold weather every couple hundred years ago. The last, if I recall, was not until the beginning of the 19th century, but I might have the date off a bit.

As always, be skeptical of reports of winning/losing sides from a single source. Winners not only write the history books, but losers also tend to have excuses.

Let me know what you find.

BTW, if you can find info, regarding misfire due to damp frizzens from humidity (which I experience in the summer when firing my Brown Bess, and today's black powder recipe is less hydroscopic) let us know.

Thought about the question(s) a lot over the years, just never took the time to post it.

ilodic.

There was the "dark day" in spring of 1780. It was dark as midnight at noon across New England and NY. I think I read that it was caused by forest fires or something like that. Joseph Plumb Martin writes about it in his book.

I use this web site for my first light, sun rise, sun set and last light.
You just need to have a well known town or city that is nearby your location in question.
I have used it for my ACW scenarios for a number of years.

Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day.
link

Example:

Sun and Moon Data for One Day

The following information is provided for Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania (longitude W77.2, latitude N39.8):

Wednesday
1 July 1863 Eastern Standard Time

SUN
Begin civil twilight 4:11 a.m.
Sunrise 4:44 a.m.
Sun transit 12:12 p.m.
Sunset 7:41 p.m.
End civil twilight 8:13 p.m.

MOON
Moonrise 7:10 p.m. on preceding day
Moon transit 12:07 a.m.
Moonset 5:08 a.m.
Moonrise 8:02 p.m.
Moonset 6:23 a.m. on following day

Full Moon on 1 July 1863 at 1:46 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

More "thank yous" to all concerned.

@ Rallynow and 11thACR – Special ones to you two for the links, and because I hadn't thought about moonlight – very important for night marches and assaulting enemy posts!!!

If you are planning a war game campaign wouldn't it be much easier to use modern data. Unless you are retracing every step as it actually happened surely the weather for any average year will do. The weather hasn't changed that much (a degree or two, but hot is hot) and daylight hours will be identical.

If you are fighting a stream of historical battles I'm sure that the accounts of the action will mention any adverse or unusual conditions. If they don't mention the weather, I tend to think that the conditions were probably too 'average' to comment on.

I think the important thing is that the 'campaign weather pattern' gives the local flavour. You don't want to pick a year that there was freak heavy snow in June (unless there historically was some, in which case find another year it happened at about the same time), but who cares otherwise?

Just my opinion of course but, I think that living in an information age has led us to expect too much from our ancestors. A lot of the time, the detailed information we expect to exist simply does not exist.

No, I'm well aware there won't be the detailed records that we would keep today, and I did say in the opening post that modern records would be just as good. I am only looking for general weather/daylight trends to put into a month/colony matrix for gamers creating their own campaigns; equally, I would like to replicate exceptional weather from specific years if I can get the broad information (eg the winter of 1776-77 was particularly cold around Lake Champlain and the upper Hudson River, the former freezing over roughly from November to late March/early April).

This might do for you then.

wunderground.com

You might have to do some weather googles on recent cold snaps in the Hudson area, find the date then tap it in, but it should give you the basics for what you need. Look under 'More' and click on 'Historical Weather'.

Good luck with your project, it sounds interesting.

James

BTW, the thing about historical information wasn't a personal criticism, it was merely a general observation.

Useing the same site link here is what I came up for the Battles of Lexington and Concord. I used Boston as the "City or Town Name".

It gives you a good idea of how well the lobster backs could see on there night march.

--------------------------------------------------------

Sun and Moon Data for One Day

The following information is provided for Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts (longitude W71.1, latitude N42.3):

Wednesday
19 April 1775 Eastern Standard Time

SUN
Begin civil twilight 4:28 a.m.
Sunrise 4:57 a.m.
Sun transit 11:43 a.m.
Sunset 6:30 p.m.
End civil twilight 7:00 p.m.

MOON
Moonrise 9:37 p.m. on preceding day
Moon transit 2:43 a.m.
Moonset 7:46 a.m.
Moonrise 10:41 p.m.
Moonset 8:38 a.m. on following day

Phase of the Moon on 19 April: waning gibbous with 83% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated.

Last quarter Moon on 22 April 1775 at 3:14 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

BTW, the thing about historical information wasn't a personal criticism, it was merely a general observation.

That's ok, I was going to apologise for my response sounding a bit abrupt when I re-read it this morning. I'll PM you on WD3 with a more expanded idea of what I'm doing in the next day or so.

This may help with the climatic zones of the US

link

Dear 138 (I hope that's not being too familiar),

Thanks for that, it's very much what I was looking for – for some reason nothing like that comes up when I type in "US Climate" (possibly because I've been putting words like "Colonial" in there as well….?).