Climate & Environment in the 16th century

60 sourced entries, 1502 CE to 1598 CE, oldest first. Also see Climate & Environment across every century or everything else in the 16th century.

• 1502March 26 – The first recorded earthquake in what is now Croatia strikes at Medvednica with a Mercalli scale intensity estimated at VIII. (2000).source
• 1502June 29 – Columbus and his crew attempt to land at Santo Domingo in order to avoid being caught in a hurricane, despite being ordered not to return to Hispaniola. Nicolás de Ovando, the Spanish Viceroy, refuses to let Columbus sail into harbor and does not believe the warnings of the hurricane, which strikes two days later.source
• 1502July 1 – A powerful hurricane sweeps through the Caribbean Sea near Puerto Rico and the island of Hispaniola, two days after Christopher Columbus was denied permission to land at Santo Domingo. An estimated 500 people are killed when the winds wreck 20 of the 31 ships brought from Spain by the new Viceroy, Nicolás de Ovando, including Ovando's flagship, El Dorado. Former Viceroy Francisco de Bobadilla and administrator Francisco Roldán are among the people killed. A ship provided by Bobadilla for Columbus to transport the gold owed to him, the Aguja, is one of the 11 to survive the hurricane and accusations are made that Columbus magically invoked the storm as an act of vengeance.source
• 1505June 6 – The M8.2–8.8 Lo Mustang earthquake strikes Nepal, causing severe damage in Kathmandu, western Nepal, and some parts of the Indo-Gangetic plain.source
• 1509September 10 – The Constantinople earthquake destroys 109 mosques and kills an estimated 10,000 people.source
• 1510September 10 – (Eishō 7, 18th day of the 8th month) An estimated 6.7 magnitude earthquake in the Seto Inland Sea (Setonaikai) strikes off the coast of Japan near what is now Nanko-Higashi.source
• 1510October 10 – (Eishō 7, 8th day of the 9th month) An earthquake in the Enshunada Sea off of the coast of Hamamatsu in what is now the Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan produces a devastating tsunami.source
• 1511March 26 – A 6.9 magnitude earthquake strikes Slovenia and Italy and kills more than 10,000 people, striking with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). The epicenter is around the town of Idrija in present-day Slovenia, although some place it some 15-20 kilometers to the west, between Gemona and Pulfero in Friulian Slovenia. The earthquake affects a large territory between Carinthia, Friuli, present-day Slovenia and Croatia.source
• 1513September 30 – A major rock avalanche occurs in the Southern side of the Swiss Alps at Monte Crenone, which destroys the village of Biasca, floods Bellinzona, and forms a lake of 390 m.a.s.l.source
• 1516May 6 – A Category IX earthquake strikes Ragusa in the Republic of Ragusa.source
• 1520December - Gustav Vasa fail in persuading the peasantry to rebel against the Danes in his speech in Mora, and leaves Sweden for Norway.Swedensource
• 1522September 22 – A 6.8 magnitude earthquake kills more than 2,500 people in the Spanish city of Almería, near Alhama de Almería. It has a maximum felt intensity of X–XI (extreme), making it the most destructive earthquake in Spanish history, and destroys the city, as well as damaging 80 other towns; in Granada, large cracks are observed in various walls and towers.source
• 1522October 22 – An EMS-X intensity earthquake kills more than 4,000 people on the Azores Islands as its strikes Vila Franca do Campo, the provincial capital, located on São Miguel Island.source
• 1527The Ming dynasty government of China greatly reduces the quotas for taking grain, severely diminishing the state's capacity to relieve famines through a previously successful granary system.source
• 1528In Henan province, China, during the mid Ming dynasty, a vast drought deprives the region of harvests for the next two years, killing off half the people in some communities, due to starvation and cannibalism.source
• 1530October 8 – A flood engulfs Rome.source
• 1530November 5 – St. Felix's flood devastates Zeeland: a large part of the Verdronken Land van Reimerswaal is lost leading to decline of the city of Reimerswaal.source
• 153126 January – The Lisbon earthquake and subsequent tsunami resulted in approximately 30,000 deaths.Portugalsource
• 1531A severe drought in Henan province, China, coupled with a gigantic swarm of locusts in the summer, forces many in destitute agricultural communities to turn to cannibalism to avoid dying by starvation.source
• 1534An earthquake with its epicentre in North Wales is felt in Dublin.Irelandsource
• 1538September 29– The last significant volcanic eruption in the Phlegraean Fields of Italy begins and lasts one week.source
• 1538October 6 – The eruption the Italian volcano ends after seven days, having created Monte Nuovo.source
• 1538The first in a decade-long series of severe famines and epidemics sweep central and southeastern China during the Ming dynasty, made worse by a decision of 1527 to cut back on the intake of grain quotas for granaries.source
• 1538In China, a tsunami floods over the seawall in Haiyan County of Zhejiang province, inundating fields with saltwater, ruining many acres of crops. This drives up the price of foodstuffs, and many are forced to live off of tree bark and weeds (as Wang Wenlu states in his writing of 1545).source
• 1540Europe is hit by a heat wave and drought lasting for about seven months. Rivers such as the Rhine and Seine dry up, and many people die from dysentery and other illnesses, caused by lack of safe drinking water.source
• 1543March 18 – As flooding of the Mississippi continues De la Vega notes that today "while the Spaniards... were making a procession in honor of Our Redeemer's entrance into Jerusalem, the river entered the gates of the little village of Aminoya in the wildness and fury of its flood, and two days later on we could not pass through the streets except in canoes."source
• 1545In China, a large failure of the harvest in Henan province occurs due to excessive rainfall, which drives up the price of wheat, and forces many to flee their rural counties; those who stay behind are forced to survive by eating leaves, bark, and human flesh.source
• 1551In Henan province, China, during the Ming dynasty, a severe frost in the spring destroys the winter wheat crop. Torrential rains in mid summer cause massive flooding of farmland and villages (by some accounts submerged in a metre of water). In the fall, a large tornado demolishes houses and flattens much of the buckwheat in the fields. Famine victims either flee, starve, or resort to cannibalism. This follows a series of natural disasters in Henan in the years 1528, 1531, 1539, and 1545.source
• 1552Suklenmung's reign as king of Ahom ends with his death (began 1539)Indiasource
• 1555September – The 1555 Kashmir earthquake causes widespread destruction and death in Kashmir, India.source
• 1556January 23 – The Shaanxi earthquake, the deadliest earthquake in history, occurs with its epicenter in Shaanxi province, China; 830,000 people may have been killed.source
• 15561 September – Dry summer leads to an early and poor harvest and forest fires in Normandy and the north.Francesource
• 15564 December – Harsh winter causes the Rhône to freeze near Arles.Francesource
• 1557January – Harsh winter weather continuesFrancesource
• 1559September 19 – Just weeks after arrival at Pensacola, the Spanish missionary colony is decimated by a hurricane that kills hundreds, sinks five ships, with a galleon, and grounds a caravel; the 1,000 survivors divide to relocate/resupply the settlement, but suffer famine & attacks, and abandon the effort in 1561.source
• 1562November – Séan Ó Néill lays waste to Maguire's Country (County Fermanagh).Irelandsource
• 1563After September (possible year) – introduction of the potato to Ireland by John Hawkins.Irelandsource
• 1569September 26 – Kasim Pasha ends his attempt to conquer Astrakhan after realizing that his troops have only one month's supply of food left.source
• 1570February 5 – Venus occults Jupiter; this will next happen in 1818.source
• 1570February 8 – An estimated 8.3 magnitude earthquake occurs in Concepción, Chile.source
• 1570November 17 – A major earthquake strikes the Italian city of Ferrara at 3:00 in the morning local time, destroying 40 percent of the buildings in the city, but causing only 171 deaths. After the initial shocks, a sequence of aftershocks continue for four years, with over 2,000 in the period from November 1570 to February 1571.source
• 1570Volcanic eruption in the Santorini caldera begins.source
• 1575December 16 – An earthquake hits Valdivia.source
• 1580April 6 – The Dover Straits earthquake occurs.source
• 1580The Billy Mitchell volcano, on the island of Bougainville, undergoes a catastrophic eruption (VEI 6).source
• 1582April 2 – 1582 Ancuancu earthquake: Ancuancu (in modern-day La Paz Department, Bolivia) is struck by an earthquake that reportedly buries all of the inhabitants, except for one chief, who reportedly loses the ability to speak. On the place where the village had stood, the Jacha Kalla (Achocalla) valley is formed as a result of the earthquake.source
• 1585June 11 – The 9.2 magnitude Aleutian Islands earthquake unleashes a tsunami in the Pacific Ocean, killing many people in Hawaii and reportedly striking Japan.source
• 1585November 27 – A 6.6 magnitude earthquake strikes Japan, and serves a foreshock and a trigger to a deadly 7.9 magnitude earthquake on January 18 that will kill 8,000 people.source
• 1585Máel Sechnaill Ruadh Ó Braonáin of Galway is recorded as one of the last harpers of the period in Connacht.Irelandsource
• 1586January 18 – The 7.9 magnitude Tenshō earthquake strikes the Chubu region of Japan, triggering a tsunami and causing at least 8,000 deaths.source
• 1587February 12 – A period of exceptionally severe cold begins in western Europe and lasts until February 24.source
• 1587A severe famine breaks out in Ming dynasty China.source
• 1590September 15 – The estimated 6.0 magnitude Neulengbach earthquake causes significant damage and some loss of life, in Lower Austria and Vienna; the effects are felt as far as Bohemia and Silesia.source
• 1591September 5 – A storm near the Azores in the North Atlantic begins, sinking a large number of the Spanish ships, including the recently-captured HMS Revenge. During August and September, at least eight intense hurricanes occur in the most severe of the pre-1600 seasons on record.source
• 159412 December – To combat dearth, the City of Antwerp prohibits forestalling on the grain marketBelgiumsource
• 1594The city of Pompeii is rediscovered more than 1,500 years after its burial by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.source
• 1596The fourth of a five year run of poor harvests, largely caused by the weather, a pattern typical of the last third of the century. This causes famine throughout Europe, which leads to food riots in Britain.source
• 159723 July – Earthquake in the Highlands.Scotlandsource
• 1597Bad harvests again cause famine.Swedensource
• 1598May 13 (Keichō 3, 8th day of the 4th month) – The Mount Asama volcano on the Japanese island of Honshu erupts.source