scholarly journals Intemperate weather in violent times – narratives from the Western Balkans during the Little Ice Age (17-18th centuries)

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 137 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Mrgic
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Late Phase ◽  
Danube River ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Seasonal Temperature ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Land Use Patterns ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation

The paper aims to present narrative sources from the late phase of ‘Little Ice Age’ period for a part of the Southeastern Europe, which is still poorly investigated. In the lack of solid evidence, obtained by geo-sciences (dendrochronology, sediment and pollen analysis, records of instrumental measurements, etc.), the text relies on documentary ‘proxies’ derived from several chronicles and short notes. These accounts – from Dalmatian cities of Split and Makarska, Ottoman metropolis of Sarajevo, Franciscan monasteries in Kreševo (Bosnia) and in Šarengrad (Srem, after Habsburg re-conquest) – are unevenly distributed in time and geographical space, far from the quality of ‘weather diaries’, which existed elsewhere in Europe of this period. Nonetheless, the preserved sources verify in their own manner cumulative changes occurring throughout the region: people observed changes not only in high frequency of change of seasonal temperature and precipitation patterns and the scale, but more significantly, there was coupling of extreme weather events and heavy disturbances of weather patterns. Franciscan writers in Makarska and Kreševo repeatedly wrote how weather features and course of seasons were untimely, unexpected, sudden and detrimental, ‘suis temporibus non correspondens’, and how particular agricultural works could not be performed ‘ut moris est’, at the usual, traditional schedule, due to the weather perturbances. Adriatic summers turned extremely hot and dry, with long periods without any rain, while data from Šarengrad corroborate results obtain in the historical climatology for Hungary on the severity of winters and long period of frozen Danube River. Mulla Basheski’s records from Sarajevo yield information on Miljacka River flood events, in connection to both climate condition and land-use patterns. This paper is foremost an attempt to draw attention to research possibilities for the Western Balkans, and there are more documentary, narrative and archival sources to be further investigated, with collaborations among geoscientists and historians.

scholarly journals Social vulnerability to climate in the "Little Ice Age"?: an example from Central Europe in the early 1770s

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Pfister ◽  
R. Brázdil
Keyword(s):  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Adverse Weather ◽  
Czech Lands

Abstract. The paper is oriented on social vulnerability to climate in Switzerland and in the Czech Lands during the early 1770s. Documentary sources of climate related to man-made archives are discussed. Methods of temperature and precipitation reconstruction based on this evidence as well as climate impact analyses are presented. Modelling of Little Ice Age-type Impacts (LIATIMP) is applied to highlight climate impacts during the period 1750–1800 in the Swiss Plateau and in the Czech Lands. LIATIMP are defined as adverse climate situations affecting grain production, mainly in terms of rainy autumns, cold springs and rainy harvest-periods. The most adverse weather patterns according to this model occurred from 1769 to 1771 causing two, in the case of the Czech Lands even three successive harvest failures. The paper addresses the social and economic consequences of this accumulation of climatic stress and explores how the authorities and the victims dealt with this situation.

scholarly journals Social vulnerability to climate in the "Little Ice Age": an example from Central Europe in the early 1770s

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Pfister ◽  
R. Brázdil
Keyword(s):  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Adverse Weather ◽  
Czech Lands

Abstract. The paper is oriented on social vulnerability to climate in Switzerland and in the Czech Lands during the early 1770s. Documentary sources of climate related to man-made archives are discussed. Methods of temperature and precipitation reconstruction based on this evidence as well as climate impact analyses are presented. Modelling of Little Ice Age-type Impacts (LIATIMP) is applied to highlight climate impacts during the period 1750–1800 in the Swiss Plateau and in the Czech Lands. LIATIMP are defined as adverse climate situations affecting agricultural production, mainly in terms of rainy autumns, cold springs and rainy harvest-periods. The most adverse weather patterns according to this model occurred from 1769 to 1771 causing two, in the case of the Czech Lands even three successive harvest failures. The paper addresses the social and economic consequences of this accumulation of climatic stress and explores how the authorities and the victims dealt with this situation.

Greenhouses, hot water bottles, cycles and the future of New Zealand climate

2009 ◽  
pp. 61-67
Author(s):  
W.P. De Lange
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Infrared Radiation ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Almost All

The Greenhouse Effect acts to slow the escape of infrared radiation to space, and hence warms the atmosphere. The oceans derive almost all of their thermal energy from the sun, and none from infrared radiation in the atmosphere. The thermal energy stored by the oceans is transported globally and released after a range of different time periods. The release of thermal energy from the oceans modifies the behaviour of atmospheric circulation, and hence varies climate. Based on ocean behaviour, New Zealand can expect weather patterns similar to those from 1890-1922 and another Little Ice Age may develop this century.

scholarly journals Tree-ring investigations into changing climatic responses of yellow-cedar, Glacier Bay, Alaska

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 814-819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory C. Wiles ◽  
Colin R. Mennett ◽  
Stephanie K. Jarvis ◽  
Rosanne D. D’Arrigo ◽  
Nicholas Wiesenberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Strong Negative Correlation ◽  
Glacier Bay ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Climatic Responses ◽  
Response To Temperature

Yellow-cedar ( Callitropsis nootkatensis (D. Don) Örsted ex D.P. Little) is in a century-long decline coinciding with the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA). The leading hypothesis explaining this decline is a decrease in insulating snowpack due to warming and increased susceptibility to damaging frosts in the root zone. A ring-width series from yellow-cedar on Excursion Ridge (260 m a.s.l.) in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska, and another from trees on Pleasant Island (150 m a.s.l.) in the Tongass National Forest in Icy Strait were compared with regional monthly temperature and precipitation data from Sitka, Alaska, to investigate the changing growth response to temperature at these sites. Comparisons with monthly temperatures from 1832 to 1876 during the end of the Little Ice Age show that the high-elevation Excursion Ridge and the low-elevation Pleasant Island sites strongly favored warmer January through July temperatures. Both tree populations have markedly changed their response from a positive to a strong negative correlation with January through July temperatures since 1950. This strong negative response to warming by the yellow-cedar together with a positive relationship with total March and April precipitation suggests that these yellow-cedar sites may be susceptible to decline. Furthermore, these analyses are consistent with the hypothesis that the yellow-cedar decline is linked to decreased snowpack.

scholarly journals Variations in surface area of six ice aprons in the Mont-Blanc massif since the Little Ice Age

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (259) ◽  
pp. 777-789
Author(s):  
Grégoire Guillet ◽  
Ludovic Ravanel
Keyword(s):  
Surface Area ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Seasonal Temperature ◽  
Degree Days ◽  
Temperature Variations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Precipitation Records ◽  
Mont Blanc Massif

AbstractDeglaciation of high mountain rockwalls alters slope stability as rockwalls become more sensitive to modifications in environmental factors (e.g. seasonal temperature variations). In the past decades, increasing efforts focused on studying deglaciated Alpine rockwalls. Yet, currently deglaciating rockfaces remain unstudied. Here, we quantify surface area variations of massive ice bodies lying on high mountain rockwalls (ice aprons) in the French sector of the Mont Blanc massif between the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA) and 2018. Surface area estimates are computed from terrestrial and aerial oblique photographs via photogrammetry. This technique allows using photographs taken without scientific intent, and to tap into diverse historical or recent photographic catalogs. We derive an ice apron surface area model from precipitation records and the positive degree-days. The studied ice aprons shrank from 1854 to the 1950s, before expanding until the end of the 1990s. The beginning of the 21st century shows a decrease in surface area, leading to the complete melt of one of the studied ice aprons in 2017. Observed variations correlate with modeled surface area, suggesting strong sensitivity of ice aprons to changes in climatic variables. By studying site-specific correlations, we explore the importance of local drivers over the balance of ice aprons.

Climatic variation and runoff in mountain basins with differing proportions of glacier cover*

2006 ◽  
Vol 37 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 315-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
David N. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Air Temperature ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Climatic Variation ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Precipitation Data ◽  
Climatic Fluctuation ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Glacier Recession ◽  
Mountain Basins ◽  
High Elevations

Records of discharge from partially-glacierised basins in the upper Rhône catchment, Switzerland, were examined together with air temperature and precipitation data in order to assess impacts of climatic fluctuation and percentage glacierisation of basin on runoff, as glaciers declined from dimensions attained during the Little Ice Age. Above 60% glacierisation, year-to-year variations in runoff mimicked mean May–September air temperature, rising in the warm 1940s, declining in the cool 1970s, before increasing (by 50%) into the warm dry 1990s/2000s but not reaching 1940s maxima. In basins with between 35–60% glacierisation, flow also increased into the 1980s but waned through the 1990s. With less than 2% glacierisation, the pattern of runoff was broadly the inverse of that of temperature and followed precipitation, dipping in the 1940s, rising in the cool wet late 1960s, and declining into the 1990s/2000s, with glacier melt in warm years being insufficient to offset lack of precipitation. On mid-sized glaciers at relatively low elevations and with limited vertical extent, in warmer years, the transient snow line was above the highest point of the glacier. Only on large glaciers descending from high elevations can rising transient snowlines continue to expose more ice to melt. Runoff from such large glaciers was enhanced in warm summers but reduction of overall ice area through glacier recession led to runoff in the warmest summer (2003) being lower than the previous peak discharge recorded in the second warmest year (1947).

Glacier fluctuations on South Georgia during the 1970s and early 1980s

1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Gordon ◽  
Roger J. Timmis
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Seasonal Temperature ◽  
Climatic Warming ◽  
Tidewater Glaciers ◽  
South Georgia ◽  
Ice Surface ◽  
Strategic Location ◽  
Surface Profiles ◽  
The Antarctic

South Georgia is a highly glacierized island with a range of glacier types including corrie, valley and tidewater ice bodies. Glaciologically, it occupies a strategic location between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula and is potentially an important locality for establishing glacier-climate relationships in the region. Baseline surveys of ice front positions and ice surface profiles have been repeated to determine recent changes in several glacier types. Corrie and small, land-based valley glaciers have continued to thin and recede during the period of study, following an advance during the 1930s. Their behaviour primarily reflects the effects of seasonal temperature variations in controlling net balances, and particularly the climatic warming since 1950. The larger valley and tidewater glaciers display a lagged response and in the 1970s were at their most advanced positions since the Little Ice Age of the 17–19th centuries. However, in the last few years they too have commenced to thin and recede.

scholarly journals Methodological proposal for the analysis of the evolution of glaciers since the Little Ice Age and its application in the Tröllaskagi Peninsula (northern Iceland)

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
J.M. Fernández-Fernández ◽  
N. Andrés
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Statistical Treatment ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Climatic Evolution ◽  
Reduction In Area ◽  
Climate Series ◽  
Area And Volume

In this paper we propose a methodological sequence for the study of glaciers and climate change, and for the use of glaciers as indicators of climatic evolution. Our proposal includes different techniques focused on: mapping glacier extents at different dates, measuring front variations, calculating areas and volumes, analyzing glacier Equilibrium-Line Altitudes (ELA), statistical treatment of climate series, and the application of glacier-climate models that relate temperature and precipitation and enable paleoclimate reconstruction. This methodology was tested by remote monitoring of three highly sensitive debris-free glaciers in the Tröllaskagi peninsula (northern Iceland) since the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA), and the results show an average retreat of 1.3 km as well as a reduction in area and volume of 25% and 33% as a result of the warming that began at the end of the LIA. The application of the glacier-climate models suggests a climate that was up to 49% less humid at the LIA maximum. The bibliographic review of the methods utilized enables us to validate our methodological proposal and the results obtained, and ensures its application in different areas of study.

scholarly journals A prequel to the Dantean Anomaly: the precipitation seesaw and droughts of 1302 to 1307 in Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 2343-2358
Author(s):  
Martin Bauch ◽  
Thomas Labbé ◽  
Annabell Engel ◽  
Patric Seifert
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Medieval Climate Anomaly ◽  
Climate Anomaly ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Climatic Transition ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Dry Seasons ◽  
Cultural Responses

Abstract. The cold/wet anomaly of the 1310s (“Dantean Anomaly”) has attracted a lot of attention from scholars, as it is commonly interpreted as a signal of the transition between the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and the Little Ice Age (LIA). The huge variability that can be observed during this decade, like the high interannual variability observed in the 1340s, has been highlighted as a side effect of this rapid climatic transition. In this paper, we demonstrate that a multi-seasonal drought of almost 2 years occurred in the Mediterranean between 1302 and 1304, followed by a series of hot, dry summers north of the Alps from 1304 to 1306. We suggest that this outstanding dry anomaly, unique in the 13th and 14th centuries, together with cold anomalies of the 1310s and the 1340s, is part of the climatic shift from the MCA to the LIA. Our reconstruction of the predominant weather patterns of the first decade of the 14th century – based on both documentary and proxy data – identifies multiple European precipitation seesaw events between 1302 and 1307, with similarities to the seesaw conditions which prevailed over continental Europe in 2018. It can be debated to what extent the 1302–1307 period can be compared to what is currently discussed regarding the influence of the phenomenon of Arctic amplification on the increasing frequency of persistent stable weather patterns that have occurred since the late 1980s. Additionally, this paper deals with socioeconomic and cultural responses to drought risks in the Middle Ages as outlined in contemporary sources and provides evidence that there is a significant correlation between pronounced dry seasons and fires that devastated cities.

Little Ice Age Climate near Beijing, China, Inferred from Historical and Stalagmite Records

2002 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weihong Qian ◽  
Yafen Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
East Asian Monsoon ◽  
Eastern China ◽  
Phase Relationship ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Monsoon Circulation ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Cool Period ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation

AbstractFour data sets yield information about Holocene climatic change in China at different scales of space and time: (a) 120-yr ground temperature and precipitation measurements covering eastern China; (b) two NOAA 10-yr 850 hPa wind records that highlight features of data set a; (c) an 1100-year record of annual calcite accumulation on a stalagmite near Beijing, and (d) Lamb-type average wetness and temperature data from Chinese historical records back to A.D. 1470 and 1450, respectively. Dry–wet fluctuations and cold–warm oscillations are inferred using the long-term stalagmite thickness series. Quasi-70, 140, 450, and 750-yr oscillations have been detected using a wavelet transform technique. A phase relationship between temperature and precipitation oscillations has been identified based on modern observations and historical records. In northern China, relatively lower temperatures correlate with periods when precipitation shifted from above to below normal. Three colder periods during the Little Ice Age (LIA) in China are inferred, centered in the late 14th century (750-yr oscillation), the early 17th century (450-yr), and the 19th century (140-yr). The latest cool period (1950s–1970s) is found at the 70-yr oscillation. Interdecadal drought–flood and cold–warm differences are explained using modern circulation patterns. LIA climate in China was likely controlled by East Asian monsoon circulation anomalies that were affected by variations in continent–ocean thermal contrast.

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