Nice find Terry,
Looks like the monks record indicates some significant variability. The Danube not freezing at all, to communion wine freezing. Interesting that this type of weather variability is at complete odds with the infamous "hockey stick" graph of Mann, where temperature prior to the 1900's was shown to be completely flat.
We know from Josef Dietrich that the extremes were very big during his time. There were very cold winters and very mild winters, very wet summers and very dry summers," he says, adding that the range of weather extremes has been smaller in the 40 years he has recorded data for the Swiss national weather service.
"That's why I'm always cautious when people say the weather extremes now are at their greatest. Without historical context you lose control and you rush to proclaim every latest weather phenomenon as extreme or unprecedented," Hinder says.
Interesting that Hinder has found climate variability to be decreasing over the past 40 years. And I just love his last sentence - so much so, I just had to add some emphasis.
