For eleven months, there was practically no rain, „temperatures were 5–7 °C (9.0–12.6 °F)5-7 degrees above the normal values for the 20th century, in many places summer temperatures would have exceeded 40 °C (104 °F). Many forests in Europe went up in flames, choking smoke darkened the sun, not a single thunderstorm was reported in summer 1540. Water was already scarce in May, wells and springs dried up, mills stood still, people starved, animals were slaughtered.“[1] Estimates are that in 1540 half a million people died, mostly due to diarrhoeal diseases.