Science: Warmer World

During the cold winter of 1717, snow fell steadily for five days in New England, lay five or six feet deep in Boston for a long time. In March 1741, people sleighed from Stratford, Conn. to Long Island across the solidly frozen Sound. In 1779-80, according to Thomas Jefferson, "the Chesapeake Bay was frozen solid from its head to the mouth of the Potomac. At Annapolis the ice was five to seven inches in thickness, quite across. . . ."

It was plenty cold in Europe last week (see p. 10), but gaffers who...

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