Human migrations, associated wars, and the development of civilizations has been hugely affected by earth-climate and its fluctuations in weather patterns, particularly agrarian economies, which is for most of human history. The sovereign care of God's wisdom in this field is a useful perspective to our understanding.

This brief history of world weather must be seen against the background of the never-again covenant of God with the four particular life forms preserved in the annihilating flood of Noah - humankind, birds, domesticated and wild animals.

About 9,000 BC, certain cycles of our planet combined to give a specially warm period for the northern hemisphere (Holocene). These cycles are:

Maximum temperatures during the last interglacial period were higher than the current interglacial period, and certain Greenhouse gases, principally CO₂, were more abundant then than today. Within this continuing process many minor fluctuations occur for reasons that are still largely speculative.

Also, contrary to much popular science, the latest analysis of geological evidences has found no correlation between carbon dioxide levels and changes in world climate. But, variations in the level of cosmic radiation correlate directly with major wet and dry cycles in earth history. Cosmic rays provide the ionization needed in the atmosphere to stimulate cloud formation and thus rainfall.

In addition, the relative behaviour of our sun, not only seasonal in the equinox progression, as in 1 above, but also by its sun spot cycles appears to trigger changes in climate. For instance, for seventy years from 1645 AD there was no recorded sun spot activity, which, it is alleged, led to a cold period becoming a minor ice age. The sun spot cycle usually averages at 10.28 years, varying between nine and fourteen years. This sun spot cycle seems to be affected by the magnetosphere of planet Jupiter influencing the stability of loops forming in the sun's magnetic field.

The sun also appears to have a brightness cycle of 206 years of which we are now about midway, which may explain a 150 Yucatan drought which appears to have collapsed the Mayan civilization. (See 900 AD).

Some major earthquakes are also noted below as they account for more than 10% of deaths from natural hazards; although worldwide the earth actually experiences about 500,000 earthquakes each year.

Monsoon rains begin to penetrate into northern Africa changing the Sahara area to lush green vegetation.

Human migration from the Sahara into the Nile valley begins as a result of climate changes.

A period of significantly higher Nile floods begins, continuing until c.2500 BC.

The drying out of the Sahara area destroys its cattle culture and drives its inhabitants away, adding to the population of the Nile valley, and bringing the cattle-cult and mummification of the dead (including the dog/jackal-headed Anubis) with them. (University of Rome archaeological research).

Catastrophic Black Sea land subsidence, according to dendrochronology (tree-ring dating), which drowns all Early Bronze Age settlements in that region under what is now 8-10 metres of water.

Earth climate cools, putting once flourishing settlements in the higher latitudes, such as in the Orkney islands north of Scotland, under great stress.

East Africa, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Gulf of Oman, Aegean, Indus experiences an abrupt climatic change.

A period of low Nile floods begins that includes periodic severe famines, until c.1950 BC.

Ur civilization in Mesopotamia collapses under extended severe drought caused by an extended El-Niño in the Pacific Ocean

The arid period of severe periodic famines, which began from c.2180 BC, now ends.

Drought begins throughout North Africa and the Middle East. The Nile does not rise for seven years.

The Great Seven-year Famine ends with the Egyptian administration restructured over three regions of Egypt and its people grouped into cities, under vizier Joseph.

Minoan island Thera (Santorini) north of Crete explodes (Caphtor=Crete, migration of the Philistines, Amos 9:7), causing volcanic ash, a huge tidal wave, and helping the collapse of Minoan civilization.

In Iceland, the volcano Hekla erupts blanketing Europe in dust that radically changes the climate causing the collapse of Mycenaean Greek civilization, and probably affecting the economies of the Near East.

Mesopotamia is utterly devastated by a long drought which leads to an almost complete breakdown of civil authority.

Summer: A series of earthquakes off Greece generate a tsunami in the Maliakos Gulf which affects the course of the Peloponnesian War by forcing the advancing Spartans to abort their planned invasion of Attica. Ancient geographer Strabo reports that throughout Greece parts of islands are submerged, rivers permanently displaced and towns devastated. The tsunami itself hit the coast in the Maliakos Gulf at three different places, reaching towns as far as three quarters of a mile inland. The force of the tsunami was such that at one place a trireme was lifted out of its dock and thrown over a city wall.

A Catastrophic rise in the ocean's eustatic sea level occurs approximately between the years 40 BC to 100 AD. as a result of an abnormal change in world climate. Evidence for this occurence of a sudden and abnormal rise of the Dead Sea level during this period, consists of various morphological data, and dendrochronology.
Two thousand years earlier a similar rise of the sea level is estimated to have occured.

Earthquake destroys Qumran (Mesad Hasidim, 'Stronghold of the Pious'), and shakes Jerusalem.

• Earthquake shakes the Middle East destroying towns in Anatolia (Ephesus, Sardis).

• In Italy, an earthquake seriously damages the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. (The cities have not yet recovered from this catastrophe when they are destroyed in 79 AD).

• August 24: In Italy, Mount Vesuvius erupts destroying the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae.

• Drought across the steppes of Eastern Europe causes migrations of pastoral nomads and serious shrinkage of the Aral and Caspian seas. Salt laden winds from the Aral sea area may have affected climate elsewhere.
This is proabably caused by an extended severe El- Niño effect, which also causes the complete collapse of the Moche civilzation in South America.

• Sunrise, July 21: a devastating earthquake in the Hellenic trench off the coast of Crete, estimated at 8 or higher on the Richter scale, causes a tsunami that strikes the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean, particularly Alexandria and the Nile Delta, killing thousands and hurling ships nearly two miles inland. It causes widespread destruction in central and southern Greece, northern Libya, Egypt, Cyprus, and Sicily, and in Crete nearly all towns are destroyed. (The anniversary of this disaster was still commemorated annually at the end of the 6th century in Alexandria as a "day of horror).

The Migration Period Pessimum (MPP, also known as Dark Ages Cold Period) begins in large areas of central Europe and Scandinavia, causing the retreat of agriculture, including pasturing, with consequent reforestation, and decline of the Roman Empire.

• May 20/29: Earthquake strikes Antioch, Syria, followed by fire, killing about 250,000, and causing an uplift of its port of Seleucia-Pereia of ~0.7–0.8 m and subsequent silting up which makes it unusable.

• September 11: An earthquake wrecks Jerusalem, collapsing the eastern and western sides of the Dome of the Rock. The 'Nea' church complex is also destroyed and not rebuilt. 

• An earthquake seriously damages the dome of the Anastasis in Jerusalem, and a locust plague devastates the countryside which leads to severe famine in Palestine. 

• December 22: c.45,000 die in an earthquake in Corinth, Greece, and c.200,000 in Damghan, Iran.

Folke Vilgerdson of Norway names Iceland 'Iceland' from his experience of a severe winter and its sea-ice filling the fjord in a failed attempt to settle. (In 874, Ingolf Arnason succeeded).

• March 23: c.150,000 die in an earthquake near Ardabil, Iran, near the Caspian sea.

• Collapse of the Mayan civilization in the Yucatan Peninsula resulting from a 150 year drought precipitated by the 206 year cyclical brightening of the sun.

Erik the Red discovered new land West of Iceland and calls it 'Greenland'.

• Europe enjoys 300 years of warmer weather that increases harvests and allows wheat to be cultivated much further north and at higher elevations.

• An earthquake disturbs the surface area of Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The subsidence around 'Solomon's Stables' is filled up with archaeologically rich debris.

• A star explodes in the constellation of Taurus which later forms the Crab nebula.

• A seven year famine begins in Egypt during which the Nile does not rise.

• Atlantic pack ice begins to grow, making passages between Norway, Iceland and Greenland more difficult.

• Earth cooling worsens, leading to the collapse of Greenland civilization.

• Life expectancy as reflected in the records of the British royal family (the best off in society) is 35.28 years.

• In Britain and Northern Europe, torrential rain and floods cause a general famine. Hundreds of thousands of peasants die of starvation. These years begin a period of unpredictable weather which lasted into the 19^th century. (Europe does not fully recover until 1325).
The futility of prayer undermines the institutional authority of the Church.
Incidents of cannibalism occur in Ireland and other parts of Northern Europe.

• August: Epidemics of pneumonia and bubonic plague sweep Britain until the end of 1349. Life expectancy for the period until 1375 drops to 17.33 years.

• March 15: Earthquake located in Amer, Catalonia, Spain, with intensity estimated between 8 and 9 on the Richter scale, destroys the town.
• May 15: Earthquake epicenter located in Olot, Catalonia, Spain, with intensity estimated at 9.

• England experiences foul weather, a poor harvest, and high mortality from 'sweating sickness' (profuse sweat, foul smell, thirst, delirium, death within a few hours of onset).
• An earthquake destroys San Salvador, capital of El Salvador, Central America.

• February 26: Over 200,000 people are killed in an earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal.

• Much of the earth endures the so-called Little Ice Age. Global average temperature drops between 1° and 2° Celsius, ice sheets advance over farms and valleys in Greenland, the Baltic sea and Thames river freeze regularly, crops fail, and famine and disease affect Europe.
Iceland becomes isolated as its sea ice does not melt in summer.

• January 23: c.830,000 die in an earthquake in Shen-shu, China, measuring ~8 on the Richter scale.

• Elizabethan preacher, John King, declares -

"Our years are turned upside down; our summers are no summers; our harvests are no harvests".

• In England, the Thames freezes over.
• January 20, Tuesday morning: A huge tidal surge strikes Britain from the south west driving more than six miles inland and drowning more than 2000 persons, hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep, and destroying the local economy on both sides of the Bristol channel.

• August 17: c.8,000 die in an earthquake in Turkey measuring ~8 on the Richter scale.

• January 26, at 21h00 (9pm): an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale tears about 1,000km along the Cascadia fault line, from mid Vancouver Island, Canada, to northern California, causing a huge tsunami across the Pacific causing destruction along the Pacific coast of Japan. On the west coast of Vancouver Island, the tsunami completely destroys the winter village of the Pachena Bay people with no survivors.

• Seventy years of virtually no sun-spot activity now ends, which had caused a mini ice age across our planet, in which, among other, the Norwegian colony in Greenland is annihilated by attacks of Eskimos forced South by the cold.

• November 1, 10h16 [November 4, 9h30?]: c.70,000 die in an earthquake near Lisbon, Portugal, measuring ~8.7 on the Richter scale.

• Iceland (Laki) is seriously affected by two huge eruptions of lava. Volcanic ash covers the island and 75% of livestock die.
• c.50,000 die in an earthquake in Calabria, Italy.

• In Jerusalem: many Christian monasteries are damaged by an earthquake.

• January 9, 16h24 UTC: earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 near Fort Tejon in Southern California.
• December 16, 21h00: c.11,000 die in an earthquake in Naples, Italy, measuring ~6.9 on the Richter scale.

• April 2: earthquake rocks the Hawaian islands measuring 7.4 on the old Mercalli scale.

• Major volcanic eruption in Krakatau, Indonesia, causing tidal waves (tsunamis) that kill more than 36,000 people on the islands of Java and Sumatra.

• October 27, 21h38: c.7,273 die in an earthquake in Mino-Owari, Japan, measuring ~8 on the Richter scale.

• June 12, 11h06: c.1,500 die in an earthquake in Assam, India, measuring ~8.3 on the Richter scale.

• Major volcanic eruption of Mount Pele, Martinique, killing some 28,000 people in two minutes.

• December 28, 04h20: more than c.70,000 die in an earthquake and an associated tsunami near Messina, Italy, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale.

• December 16, 12h05: c.200 000 die in an earthquake in Ningxia-Kansu, China, measuring 8.6 on the Richter scale.

• March 24: 5,000 die in an Earthquake in China measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.
• September 1, 02h58: c.143,000 die in an earthquake near Kanto, Japan, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale. Many die from the Great Tokyo Fire caused by the quake which destroyed over half the brick buildings in the city.

• March 7, 09h27: c.3,020 die in an earthquake in Tango, Japan, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale.
• May 22, 22h32: c.200,000 die in an earthquake near Tsinghai, China, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale.

• c.70,000 die in an earthquake near Gansu, China, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale.

• March 2, 17h31: c.2,990 die in an earthquake in Sanriku, Japan, measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale.
• March 11, 01h54: 115 die in an earthquake in Long Beach, California, USA, measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale.

• January 15, 08h43: c.10,700 die in an earthquake in Bihar, India, measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale.

• c.60 000 die in an earthquake near Quetta, Pakistan, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale. Quetta is almost completely destroyed.

• December 26, 23h57: c.32,700 die in an earthquake in Erzincan, Turkey, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale.

• December 7, 04h35: c.1,223 die in an earthquake in Tonankai, Japan, measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale.

• December 20, 19h19: c.1,330 die in an earthquake in Nankaido, Japan, measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale.

• October 5: c.110,000 die in an earthquake in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.

• August 22: Off the West Coast of British Columbia, Canada, the Queen Charlotte Island's West coast is struck by an 8.1 magnitude earthquake, Canada's largest quake since 1770.

• August 15, 14h09: c.1,526 die in an earthquake in Assam-Tibet, measuring 8.6 on the Richter scale.

• February 29, 23h40: c.10,000 die in an earthquake in Agadir, Morocco, measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale.
• May 22, 19h11: c.5,700 die in an earthquake in Chile, measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale, the largest quake ever recorded.

• May 31, 20h23: c.66,000 die in an earthquake in Peru, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale.

• The fishing port of Pozzuoli, Italy, rises by over 3 metres, probably due to the subterranean build up of volcanic magma.

• November 6, 11 AM the USA explodes a 5 megaton nuclear bomb under Amchika island, Alaska, on a tectonic fault-line, which registers 7 on the Richter scale.

• June 30: First leap second is added to our time to keep atomic clocks in line with changes in the Earth's slowing rotation.

• February 4, 11h36: c.10,000 die in an earthquake in Haicheng, China, measuring 7 on the Richter scale.

• February 4, 09h01: c.23,000 die in an earthquake in Guatemala, Central America, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale.
• July 27, 19h42: c.500,000 (some put the figure as high as 655,000) die in an earthquake in T'ang-shan, northern China, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale, the second greatest number of casualties in recorded history, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

• Major volcanic eruption of Mount St Helens, USA, destroying 10 million trees, but killing only about 60 people.

• September 19, 13h17: c.10,000 Mexicans in Michoacan, die in a major earthquake off the Pacific coast.

• December 7, 07h41: c.25,000 die in an earthquake in Spitak, Armenia, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale.

• June 20: c.40,000 die in an earthquake near Gilan, Iran, measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale.

• September 29, 22h25: c.9,748 die in an earthquake in Latur-Killari, India, measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale.

• January 16, 20h46: c.5,502 die in an earthquake in Kobe, Japan, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale.

• The rotation of the earth changes from a long term slow-down (an extra second in a little less than a year due to a gradual increase in the moon's orbit) to a short term acceleration, most probably from the descent of a large mass in the molten interior of our planet.

• July 17, 08h49: c.2,183 die in an earthquake in New Guinea, measuring 7 on the Richter scale.
• November 23: An Arctic cold wave is reported to have killed 71 people across Europe over the last three days. 36 deaths were in Poland and 24 in Romania and Bulgaria.

• January 25, 1819: c.1,185 die in an earthquake in Colombia measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale.
• May 10-12: The solar wind virtually stops (98%+ reduction) during Jupiter's perihelion (closest to the sun), allowing earth's magnetic field to expand with a temporary cooling effect.
• August 17, 00h01: c.17,118 die in an earthquake in Izmit, Turkey, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale.
• September 20, 17h47: c.2,400 die in an earthquake in Chi-Chi, Taiwan, measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale.
• November 12, 16h57: c.894 die in an earthquake in Duzce, Turkey, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The August and November in Turkey quakes killed about 20,000 people.

• Tide-gauge records suggest an average global sea-level rise over the past century of 0 to 3mm per year, though there is no firm evidence of acceleration in these rates.

• January 13, 17h33: c.844 die in an earthquake in El Salvador. measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale.
• January 26, 03h16: c.20,085 die in an earthquake in Gujarat, India, measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale.
• February 15: Our sun reverses its magnetic polarity as it reaches the peak of its 11-year sunspot cycle.
• Saturday, June 23, 20:33:14 UTC (15:33:14 local time): and earthquake strikes Peru mesuring 8.2 on the Richter Scale killing 75 directly and 26 more in the resultant tsunami and disappearance of a further 64.

• March 25, 14h56: c.1,000 die in Hindu Kush Region, Afghanistan, in an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale.

• May 21: c.2,266 die in an earthquake in Boumerdes, Algeria, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale.
• August 10: Temperatures peak at 38.1° Celsius in England.

Total number of earthquakes worldwide for the year: 31419.

• Sunday 26 December: 00:59 GMT (7.59 am local time): 283,106 die in ten countries hit by tsunamis resulting from an undersea earthquake off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia, measuring 9.1 on the Richter scale.

Total number of earthquakes worldwide for the year: 29140.

• Tuesday 22 February: 00:59 GMT? (7.59 am local time?): c.400 die and 1000s are left homeless in Iran from an earthquake in the region of Takara.
• Monday 28 March: 1,313 die in an earthquake in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, measuring 8.6 on the Richter scale.
• Thursday 28 July: an exceptionally heavy monsoon kills more than 700 in the state of Maharashtra in India.
• October: Nearly 87,000 die in an earthquake in the Islamabad and Kashmir region of Pakistan and India, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale.

• Wednesday 3 May: 15:26 GMT (04:26 local time): near the island Tonga, a major quake of 7.9 on the Richter scale.
• Friday 26 May: 22:53 GMT (Saturday 27 May 05:53 local time): 5,749 die and many thousands are injured and property destroyed in Bantul-Yogyakarta area of Java, Indonesia, in a strong quake of 6.3 on the Richter scale.
• Sunday 15 October: earthquake (07:07:48 local time): 10 miles NNW of Kailua Kona, Hawaii, Hawaii, USA, measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale, with one after-shock measuring 5.8.
• Tuesday, 26 December: 12:26:21 GMT (8:26:21 pm local time): undersea quake disrupts 7 fibre-optic cables in the Bashi channel between Taiwan and the Philippines slowing communications across southeast Asia and Australia, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale. Worldwide, internet Spam drops by 10% and viruses drop by 3% in January 2007 as a consequence.

• Thursday 8 March: 11:14:31 GMT: east of the South Sandwich Islands, a quake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale.
• Sunday 25 March: 00:40:02 GMT: about 115 km (75 miles) south of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu in the South Pacific, a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale.
• Sunday 25 March: 00.42 GMT: one dead and about 150 injured in a quake near the west coast of Honshu, Japan, measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, followed by aftershocks.
• Sunday 25 March: 01:08:19 GMT (12:08:19 pm local time): about 135 km (85 miles) south of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu in the South Pacific, a quake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale.

• Wednesday 15 August: 6:40 p.m. local time, an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale in Peru, where many Roman Catholics were in churches celebrating the Assumption of Mary, killing more than 510 and injuring more than 1500.

• Monday 1 October: the Antarctic sea ice reaches its all-time maximum as, at the same time, the Arctic sea ice reaches its minimum.

• Wednesday 14 November: an earthquake of 7.7 on the Richter scale strikes Chile killing two, causing much damage, and halting production at some of the world's largest copper mines. Aftershocks continue for days.

• Thursday 15 November: the cyclone Sidr causes the death of more than 3,000 people in Bangladesh, with many thousands missing (including a number of fishermen), and affecting some 2.74 million people, with winds of 250kph (155mph) and a storm surge as high as 6 meters (20 feet) along the lowlying coast.

• Saturday 3 May: the devastating cyclone Nargis destroys part of Myanmar/Burma, particularly its rice-growing heartland, causing the death of up to 138,000 people but the military government, reluctant to allow foreign aid workers into the country, decides to go ahead with a May 10 political referendum, and maintains its isolationist attitude supported by China. Some foreign aid allowed in is re-labelled with the names of Myanmar's military rulers as though it is a gift from them.
• Monday 12 May: a series of earthquakes, one as much as 7.8 on the Richter scale, strike across Eastern and Northern Sichuan, China, with its epicentre in Wenchuan County, killing more than 69,170 people with 17,427 missing, injuring more than 281,000, destroying about 80% of buildings, damaging about 400 dams, and displacing about five million people. Many schools collapsed in the quake, killing more than 9,000 students and teachers.
The disaster area houses China's main nuclear weapons research lab in Mianyang, and several secretive atomic sites, but no nuclear power stations. In Sichuan's Shifang city, the quake buries hundreds of people in two collapsed chemical plants, and more than 80 tons of ammonia leaks out.
• Saturday 30 August: an earthquake of 6.1 on the Richter scale kills 36, injures hundreds, damages about 400 homes in West China's Sichuan and Yannan provinces.

• Saturday 3 January: an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale strikes off Indonesia's eastern coast, around 135 kilometres from Manokwari the capital of the province of West Papua, causing electricity blackouts and sending residents fleeing for high ground.
• Monday 12 January: Durham University-led scientists use a computer model to analyse changes in Helheim Glacier, in southeast Greenland and conclude that Helheim which retreated by 7 kilometres (4 miles) over three years ending in 2005, losing 15 million tons more of ice than in 2000 at its peak (according to a February 2007 study in the journal Science) has since advanced about 4 kilometres, reversing the well publicized trend.
• Wednesday 25 February: Shunichi Akasofu – Founding Director of the International Arctic Research Center of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) reports "It seems that global warming and the halting of the temperature rise are related to solar activity. Currently, the sun is "hibernating". The end of Sunspot Cycle 23 is already two years late: the cycle should have started in 2007, yet in January 2008 only one sunspot appeared in the sun's northern hemisphere, after that, they vanished completely (new sunspots have now begun to appear in the northern hemisphere). At the current time, it can clearly be seen there are no spots in the photosphere. Lately, solar winds are at their lowest levels in 50 years. Cycle 24 is overdue, and this is is worrisome. So, have there been other historical periods with an absence of sunspots? As a matter of fact, from 1650 to 1700 approximately, there were almost no sunspots. This time period has been named for the renown English astronomer Maunder, and is called the Maunder Minimum. "
• Monday 6 April: an earthquake strikes across central Italy at 03.42 of 6.3 on the Richter scale centering under the village of Onna near L'Aquila (northeast of Rome), lasting several minutes, which kills more than 278 persons, injurying several thousands and making more than 100,000 homeless.

• Tuesday 12 January: Earthquake strikes Haiti at 16:53 local, with amagnitude of 7.0 killingabout 230,000 people, injuring an estimated 300,000 and leaving about 1,000,000 homeless. Some right-wing Christians in the United States shamefully spread the rumour that am 18th century covenant with Satan was the cause of the earthquake.
• Saturday 27 February: Earthquake strikes Maule, near Concepción, Chile, at 3.34 AM local, with a magnitude of 8.8, and tsunami warnings are issued for the whole Pacific.
• Monday 8 March, 4:32 AM: Earthquake of magnitude 6.0 at a 5 kilometre depth strikes eastern Turkey near the Karakocan town in Elazig province, killing at least 51 people.