Climate & Environment in the 15th century

31 sourced entries, 1400 CE to 1498 CE, oldest first. Also see Climate & Environment across every century or everything else in the 15th century.

• 1400The Haast's eagle and Moa are both driven to extinction by Māori hunters.source
• 1404November 19 – The St. Elizabeth's flood of the North Sea devastates parts of Flanders, Zeeland and Holland.source
• 1414October – The Hunger War ends inconclusively with a truce brokered by a Papal legate. Famine and plague is sweeping through Prussia as a result from the war.source
• 1420August 31 – A 9.4 M S -strong earthquake shakes Chile's Atacama Region, causing tsunamis in Chile, as well as Hawaii and Japan.source
• 1421November 17–19 – St. Elizabeth's flood: The coastal area near Dordrecht in the Netherlands is flooded, due to the extremely high tide of the North Sea; 72 villages are drowned, killing about 10,000 people, and the course of the Meuse is changed.source
• 1427February 23 – In Spain, the first tremors are felt in the Principality of Catalonia of what will become a devastating 6.7 magnitude earthquake that will happen less than a year later, on February 2, 1428.source
• 1428February 2 – The Catalonia earthquake takes place in the Catalonian region of Spain during Candlemas, estimated later at 6.5 magnitude, with extreme damage to the city of Roussillon and to the village of Queralbs. The quake collapses a church in Puigcerdà, killing more than 100 people, and 1,000 overall.source
• 1434In Ming Dynasty China, a long episode of drought, flood, locust infestation, and famine cripple agriculture and commerce in areas throughout the country, until 1448.source
• 1436Date of the Visokom papers, the last direct sources on the old town of Visoki.source
• 1443June 5 – The strongest earthquake on record in Poland kills at least 30 people and damages buildings in Kraków and Wrocław, and in Timișoara and Oradea in Romania.source
• 1443A powerful earthquake destroys the Timișoara Fortress in the Kingdom of Hungarysource
• 1446October 10 – An earthquake occurs in Moscow but causes little damagesource
• 1448After a long episode of drought, flood, locust infestation and famine in Ming dynasty China since the year 1434, these natural afflictions finally wane, and agriculture and commerce return to a state of normality.source
• 1452A major volcanic eruption, 1452/1453 mystery eruption, has a subsequent global cooling effect (the eruption releases more sulfate than any other event in the previous 700 years).source
• 1454December 12 (Julian calendar, December 21 Gregorian) – (24th day of 11th month of Kyotuku 3) An earthquake estimated by geologists at 8.4 magnitude strikes off the east coast of Japan and causes a tsunami that kills an indeterminate number of people in the Kantō region and the Tōhoku region.source
• 1454The Drought of One Rabbit is recorded in Aztec history.source
• 1456December 5 – A 7.4 magnitude earthquake (estimated subsequently by geologists), the first of two on the Italian peninsula, strikes near Pontelandolfo (at the time, part of the Papal States) at 11:00 at night and kills as many as 70,000 people.source
• 1456December 30 – A second earthquake strikes the Italian peninsula in the Kingdom of Naples at 9:30 p.m. and is estimated by geologists at 7.0 magnitude, followed by a 6.0 aftershock, and kills an indeterminate number of people.source
• 1460A famine breaks out in the Deccan Plateau of India.source
• 1461January 22 – In Japan, where the Kansho famine has led to thousands of people starving to death, the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa orders relief efforts to be coordinated by Ganami, a Buddhist monk who leads the Kōfuku-ji temple.source
• 1461November 27 – An earthquake estimated later at 6.4 magnitude occurs at L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of the Kingdom of Naples and kills more than 80 people.source
• 1464February 12 – The first Estates General in the Netherlands adjourns after five weeks.source
• 1473Severe heat and drought in Europesource
• 1481March 15 – The first of a series of earthquakes to affect the island of Rhodes occurs, leading up to the deadly earthquake in May.source
• 1481May 3 – The 1481 Rhodes earthquake, the largest of a series, strikes the island of Rhodes, causing an estimated 30,000 casualties.source
• 1491February 13 – A tsunami occurs off of the coast of New Zealand, later believed to be caused by a meteor impact that created what is referred to as the "Mahuika crater" on the New Zealand continental shelf.source
• 1491The Bread and Cheese Revolt breaks out in West Frisia, North Holland, caused by a famine among the peasants due to bad weather conditions.source
• 1494March 24 – An earthquake estimated centuries later at 5.5 magnitude, strikes the Chinese city of Qujing, destroying 200 homes.source
• 1494September 24 – The earliest hurricane to be specifically recorded by historians, strikes the island of Hispaniola near the Spanish colonial capital, La Isabela, the day after Christopher Columbus arrives at Saona, following five months of explorations.source
• 1497A famine "prevailed through all Ireland", according to the Annals of the Four Masters.source
• 1498September 20 – (Meiō 7, 2nd day of the 7th month) A massive earthquake, estimated centuries later as having been 8.6 magnitude occurs off of the coast of the Japanese region of Nankaidō at about 8:00 in the morning. The resulting tsunami kills at least 5,000 people (and perhaps as many as 41,000) when it strikes Kamakura and the surrounding area in what is now Japan's Kanagawa Prefecture. The tsunami washes away a building that houses the Kotoku-in Buddhist temple, but spares the large bronze statue of the Buddha Amitābha.source