The spread of potato blight in Europe in 1845-6 and the accompanying wind and weather patterns

Abstract

The first R&D programme in the field of climatology, which was adopted by the Council of the European Communities in 1979. led to the promotion of 51 international research projects in different aspects of understanding climate and of man-climate interactions. Under the terms of Contract CLI 065 UK(H). Professor H.H. Lamb (Norwich) and Dr Austin Bourke (Dublin) undertook a study of the biometeorological background to the historic epidemic of potato blight which raged in Western Europe in the years 1845-6 and which culminated in the great Irish famine. Apart from its historical interest, the study has implications for the present day epidemiology of plant diseases of food crops, particularly in the Third World.