The Diary of the Weather and Winds ...

from Portsmouth that this day about 8 in the Morning a large Halo was seen about the Sun; it Continued almost half an hour, but the Colours of it were very faint, except those two parts of it which lay in the same right Line with the sun, and Parallel to the Horizon which were of the same Apparent Brignes with the Sun and were of a Prismatick red towards it: they were very Remarkable for the Long Streams of light which Darted from them every way but towards the Sun,

19 in the Storm this evening, 3 or 4 ships were wreck’d on the Coast of Wicklow and several very much Distres’d, by the great Rains, there have been this week Considerable floods from the Mountains, which has done Damage to several places about the City of Dublin,

20 Hammersmith near London, this morning a young man of 18 years was so burnt by a flash of lightning that his life is despaired of; hearing thunder about 4 Mane, he ran to the window and looked out, when a second flash; burnt his shirt up to the elbows, and from his neck to his Waste, his breast is burnt as black as a cole,

25 a great storm of Thunder lightning and rain near Worcester, the hail stones as big as common hazel Nuts, a poor man was struck down and fell into Grafton Brook and was drowned and a boy was struck blind with the lightning, this storm raged in several parts of England this week, viz: at Thetford near Banbury in Oxfordshire the hail stones there were 3 inches about, and a large Oak was shiver’d to pieces by the Lightning at Burford the Hail Storm was so violent that it flooded the town, and knocked down the swallows as they flew, at Inkburow [Inkberrow] in this Country the Earth was tore up near a foot thick over the green wheat as if newly ploughed, at Holme Pierpont [Holme Pierrepont] in Notinghamshire [Nottinghamshire] that about 9 in the morning appeared a very black Cloud with a violent storm of wind, it was as dark as at the totall Eclipse; there fell from the Cloud a great ball of fire into the River Trent, with a noise like Clap of Thunder, and beat the water out of the river with so great a force that it fell all over the gardens and a plot of trees and affrighted the people prodigiously of the village Called Holme Lane.