We constantly hear about new heatwaves and alleged temperature records.

It seems as though there have been no historic European heatwaves or droughts. That is not true.

Of course, there have been historic heatwaves and droughts in Europe.

These significant historical European heatwaves and droughts (or the associated extremely low water levels) were reconstructed using documentary sources (chronicles, annals), tree-ring data (e.g., the “Old World Drought Atlas” or OWDA), and other proxy data.

Many rank among the most severe pre-instrumental events, with widespread agricultural failure, low rivers, fires, disease, and social impacts. They often occurred amid broader warm/dry phases or during the Little Ice Age’s variability.

1212 and 1252

These fall in the warmer Medieval Climate Anomaly phase, when 13th-century European summers were among the warmest of the second millennium, with hot/dry spells noted around 1232–1252.

1212: A dry summer in England (and more broadly) contributed to the Great Fire of Southwark in London, which killed thousands. Low water and dry conditions worsened the fire’s spread.

1252: A severe drought and heat wave, especially in England and Wales. Chronicler Matthew Paris described four months (March–July) of “intolerable heat and drought” with no rain or dew. Grass turned to dust; pastures failed, livestock suffered, and crops/fruit failed. Contemporary accounts from Tewkesbury and Wales note extreme dryness, heat, and secondary effects like insect surges and disease (e.g., malaria-like “sweats” or “ague”). It is listed among notable pre-1450 English/Welsh droughts; some sources pair 1252–1253 as exceptionally dry consecutive years (with crop ruin and heat-related deaths), though autumn flooding also occurred in places.

1473

This was one of the most extreme and widespread heat/drought events of the past millennium in Europe, lasting roughly 14 months (into early 1474) and culminating a multi-year warm/dry phase (1471–1474).

It affected Western, Central, and Eastern Europe, Southern Scandinavia, Ireland, Northern Italy, and parts of Spain—larger in extent and duration than the famous 1540 event in some assessments.

Rivers (e.g., Meuse, Danube, Odra/Vistula) dropped extremely low or became fordable; droughts lasted months in places (e.g., May–October in parts of the Netherlands, May–November in Wrocław).

Impacts included water shortages, halted mills, harvest failures or early harvests (with some good wine/fruit but overall agricultural damage), rising food prices, forest fires, and later locust invasions. It ranks as a peak intensity within a mid-15th-century north-central European megadrought phase (intense ~1437–1473). Tree-ring and documentary data confirm its severity.

Megadrought of 1540

The 1540 European megadrought was primarily driven by persistent atmospheric blocking combined with land-atmosphere feedbacks, occurring as a natural extreme during a decade of relative summer warmth within the Little Ice Age.

It was not linked to a single dominant external forcing (such as a major volcanic eruption or solar anomaly specific to that year) in the same way some multi-decadal megadroughts were, but rather to an exceptional, quasi-persistent circulation pattern amplified by soil moisture depletion.

Often called a “worst-case” or year-long (≈11-month) unprecedented European heat and drought (peak of a drier 1530s period).

It affected a vast area (France to Poland, England’s London Basin, Low Countries, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czech lands, northern/central Italy, parts of Spain, etc.). Winter 1539/40 was already warm and dry (“like July” in northern Italy, with little rain for months); high pressure then blocked Atlantic moisture.

Precipitation was far below modern minima (estimates of ~1/4 of 20th-century averages in places like the Swiss Plateau; rainfall reduced up to ~80% in regions).

Temperatures were exceptionally high (reconstructions suggest spring–summer anomalies possibly exceeding 2003 in places; local estimates of 5–7°C above 20th-century normals, with possible peaks over 40°C).

Rivers (Rhine, Elbe, Seine, Meuse, etc.) fell dramatically (some fordable on foot/horse; discharges estimated at ~10% of average in places); springs, brooks, and smaller rivers dried; Lake Constance hit record lows (revealing Roman coins).

Widespread wildfires, soil cracks, crop failures, livestock deaths, water shortages, and disease (especially dysentery from poor water; estimates of hundreds of thousands of excess deaths) ensued. It is extensively documented in hundreds of contemporary sources and matches OWDA tree-ring patterns for severe central European drought.

Climate models struggle to simulate its full severity.

In summary, the 1540 megadrought resulted from a prolonged blocking high-pressure system that shut off Atlantic moisture, preconditioned and amplified by prior dryness and strong soil-moisture–temperature feedbacks.

It illustrates how rare but natural circulation extremes can produce “worst-case” compound heat-and-drought events even without modern anthropogenic warming.

Extreme water level of 1616

A major drought year (one of five “outstanding” events in Czech documentary records since 1090, alongside 1540, 1590, 1718, and 1719), with great heat, dried-up rivers, and severe-to-extreme drought across central and eastern Europe (extending to Switzerland and Germany).

It is marked on a “hunger stone” on the Elbe River at Děčín (indicating extreme low water). OWDA maps confirm severe drought over central/eastern Europe. Impacts included water shortages, milling problems, and food stress.

1631 and 1636

These occurred amid drier conditions in the 1630s (during the Thirty Years’ War era), with persistent dry anomalies in Czech lands and broader central Europe (tree-ring scPDSI shows notable dryness; 1631/1632 among drier years).

1631: Severe drought and heat in places like Louny (Czech lands), Thuringia, and Saxony—brooks, springs, and wells dried; forests burned; mills stopped; water scarcity for livestock and people; exacerbated food/fodder shortages.

1636: Part of a series of dry/warm summers (notably 1636–1637/38). In southern/central England (London/SE), it was very hot and dry, with reports of no rain from March to August (or into September); trees lost leaves as if in winter by August. Broader European effects aligned with 17th-century drought clusters.

1718, 1719, and 1842

1718 and 1719: Outstanding drought events in Czech documentary reconstructions (well expressed in OWDA). They form part of notable early-18th-century dry conditions in central Europe, with heat, low water, and agricultural stress.

1842: An extreme drought across much of Europe (excluding the Mediterranean), analyzed via both documentary sources and early instrumental measurements. It featured significant precipitation deficits, elevated temperatures, and impacts on water management, agriculture, and society (including human responses such as institutional measures). It is highlighted in studies of 19th-century European droughts.

These events illustrate that extreme multi-month or multi-year heat/droughts (with cascading effects on rivers, agriculture, fire, and health) have occurred repeatedly in Europe’s climate history, sometimes exceeding 20th/21st-century events in duration or spatial extent, though modern ones occur against a background of rising baseline temperatures and different societal vulnerability.

Reconstructions continue to refine details via tree rings, historical texts, and models.

See also:

The catastrophic megadrought and heatwave of 1540

European Hunger stones