Grote Mandrenke

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The Grote Mandrenke (Dutch: "Great Drowning of Men") was the name of a massive southwesterly Atlantic gale, (see also European windstorm), which swept across England, the Netherlands, northern Germany and Schleswig around January 16, 1362, causing at minimum 25,000 deaths.

An immense storm tide of the North Sea swept far inland from the Netherlands to Denmark, wiping out entire towns and districts, such as Rungholt on the island of Strand in North Frisia. This island was cut into several smaller islands; today's Nordstrand, Pellworm, Nordstrandischmoor and Südfall.

This storm tide, along with others of like size in the 13th century and 14th century, played a part in the formation of the Zuider Zee, and was characteristic of the unsettled and changeable weather in northern Europe at the beginning of the Little Ice Age.