What was the weather like before and during the Battle of Hastings, in October 1066?
(We had to turn to Randy Cerveny, a professor of geography at Arizona State Universtiy and an expert on weather and climate history, for help with this one.) A: The basic history of the Battle of Hastings follows from the coronation of Harold as King of Briton following the death of Edward the Confessor. Harold realized that William (who would soon be known as the Conqueror) would try to invade England from Normandy. Harold therefore set up a protective fleet of ships to patrol the English Channel in early July of 1066. This would have been bad for William since he had originally planned to invade England in July, but here is where weather played a vital role: With adverse winds preventing his crossing the Channel to England, William delayed the invasion from the end of July to September. By this time, Harold’s navy was no longer patrolling the sea; their duty having ended in early September. By late September, the weather had cleared so that on the 28th of September, William and his i
