The US southeast was hit by quite a drought in the last two years, but that was nothing compared to what the first English colonists found in the New World for Roanoke (Lost Colony) and Jamestown.
According to University of Arkansas dendrochronolgist David Stahle, the 117 members of what has since become known as the "Lost Colony" in North Carolina who disappeared in 1587, leaving nothing but the word "Croatoan" carved in a tree. An examination of tree rings from that time show that the region was suffering its driest year in 800 years.
Twenty years later, the first permanent English settlement, Jamestown, almost didn't make it because of the misfortune to arrive during a drought that lasted from 1606 to 1612. Only 38 of the original 104 colonists survived.
From National Geographic March 1999.
How Dry I Am. How Dry They Were. --Old Coot
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