“The medical faculty at the University of Paris in 1348 listed change of season, “flying” stars, change in the color of the air, lightning and other aerial lights, winds and thunder, dead animals, and an increase in frogs and reptiles as signs of the plague. In 1350 the physician and poet Simon de Covino listed heavy mists, clouds, lightning, and falling stars.”

—Joseph P. Byrne, Daily Life During the Black Death, 2006.