Be glad it warmed | The Little Ice Age and Scotland

Also known as the Little Ice Age, it lasted 70 years from 1645 to 1715 and featured The Great Frost which froze the River Thames in London for days.

Interestingly, this period coincided with some of the most dramatic events in Scotland's history.

A king was forced into exile, there was rebellion, famine, an ill-fated Scottish bid to establish a colony in Central America and a sandstorm buried a coastal estate.

The span of 70 years also saw the signing of the Act of Union in 1707 and the unsuccessful Jacobite rising of 1715.

Temperatures in Scotland during the Little Ice Age were 1.5C to 2C cooler than they are today. In the summer, this shortened the growing season and devastated staple crops.

Missouri: Cold weather hampers corn

Missouri spring crop planting delayed by cold weather in early April faces more delays by late-April rainfall, says Pat Guinan, University of Missouri climatologist.

Cool temperatures kept soils from warming and delayed corn planting across much of the state in early April. In Columbia, the first 14 days of April were the tenth coldest for that time in 120 years, said Guinan, a weather specialist with the MU Commercial Agriculture Program.

Cool air kept soil temperatures in the 40s, except in the Bootheel.

“We need soil temperatures at least 50 degrees for corn planting,” said Bill Wiebold, MU Extension agronomist. “Warm, moist soils encourage rapid seed germination and plant emergence soon after planting.”

In cool soils, seeds that fail to germinate quickly are subject to rot or insect damage.