For eleven months, there was practically no rain, temperatures were five to seven degrees [Celsius] [9–13 °F] above the normal values for the 20th century, in many places summer temperatures must 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 the summer of 1540. Water was already scarce in May, wells and springs dried up, mills stood still, people starved, livestock was slaughtered. Estimates are that in 1540 half a million people died, mostly from dysentery.
Everything began in northern Italy, with a winter that felt like a July. Not a single drop fell from October 1539 to early April 1540. Then the drought advanced north. ... July brought such a frightful ember-like heat that churches made prayers while the Rhine, Elbe and Seine could be waded through without getting one's feet wet. Where there was still water, the warm broth acquired a green colour, and dead fish floated belly-up. Water levels in Lake Constance sank to record low levels, and Lindau actually became connected to the mainland. Soon the surface water had completely evaporated, soils broke up, some dry cracks were so wide that a foot would fit into them. ...
The first grapes were already ripe by 12 August, in Alsace fruit trees bloomed a second time, in Lindau it was actually enough for a second cherry harvest. At Lake Constance and in Bayreuth wine eventually became cheaper than water, and in Limoges winemakers were harvesting roasted grapes, from which they obtained sherry-like wine, which ... made one quickly drunk.