By Mary O’KEEFE

I continue to watch “The Revolution” on PBS. It is a six-part documentary by Ken Burns, Sarah Botsein and David Schmidt. 

First of all, I became a member of PBS [Public Broadcasting Service] to watch this series and actually feel good about spending money for a streaming station. PBS has been struggling since federal funds were canceled by the Trump Administration, though a judge reversed that order. The bottom line is PBS brought us iconic shows, including “Sesame Street,” “Masterpiece Theater,” “Great Performances” and “American Masters.” Our local PBS station introduced me to “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” [reruns] and “Dr. Who” [my doctor was Tom Baker]. All of this and some amazing documentaries – especially those from historian/filmmaker/author Ken Burns. 

Among the many things that the show “The Revolution” has made me say are “I didn’t know that” or “I never thought of that.” It also showed how weather played an important part in the fight for independence. 

What we often forget is just how different the United States is compared to other countries. We have weather for days, weather that the British troops were not exactly used to but that our Continental Army could use to its advantage. 

“I mean, we may not have a country if there hadn’t been a rain and then a fog coming in in New York City when Washington was trapped by the British by a mistake he made, a tactical  mistake he made,” said Burns to the National Weather Service (NWS) in an Instagram interview. “He’s up against the wall, his back up against the heights of Brooklyn, and the British are going to finish him off. And the British general’s brother, [Admiral] Richard Howe,  is going to come up the East  River and prevent the Americans from getting back to New York.

“But a fog rolls in, and Washington is able to overnight take his entire surviving army back over to Manhattan. He’ll have to give it up in a few weeks, but it saves Washington. And if he’s gone, we’re gone.”

So there was rain, winds and so much snow. According to the NWS, there was a “Little Ice Age” during the years from 1775 to 1783. This brought extreme weather. 

According to an article in Emerging Revolutionary War, the winter of 1779 to 1789 was bad. New Jersey experienced 26 snowstorms, six of those were blizzards.  Every saltwater inlet from North Carolina to Canada froze over completely. New York Harbor froze with ice so thick the British soldiers were able to march from Manhattan to Staten Island. 

In a March 18, 1789 letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, Washington wrote, “The oldest people now living in this Country do not remember so hard a Winter as the one we are now emerging from. In a word, the severity of the frost exceeded anything of the kind that had ever been experienced in this climate before.”

Although most equate the Revolutionary winter with Valley Forge from 1777 to 1778, the worst winter was when General Washington and his men were in the winter encampment at Morristown, New Jersey in the winter of 1779 to 1780. They were trapped by one of the worst winters on record. The Continental Army lacked food, clothes and sufficient shelter, according to mountvernon.org. 

I think with the nation celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence we should remember the sacrifice made for freedom, and watch “The Revolution.”

The June Gloom we have been experiencing is expected to be less gloomy as the marine layer will shrink in our area, according to NOAA. 

But with that shrinking comes warming temperatures. Today should be in the low to mid 80s, which brings us closer to our normal for this time of year. Temperatures will continue to rise through next week with temperatures expected in the high 80s/low 90s.