Abstract
A 1053-year reconstruction of spring rainfall (March-June) was developed for the southeastern United States, based on three tree-ring reconstructions of statewide rainfall from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. This regional reconstruction is highly correlated with the instrumental record of spring rainfall (r = +0.80; 1887–1982), and accurately reproduces the decade-scale departures in spring rainfall amount and variance witnessed over the Southeast during the past century. No large-magnitude centuries-long trends in spring rainfall amounts were reconstructed over the past 1053 years, but large changes in the interannual variability of spring rainfall were reconstructed during portions of the Medieval Warm Period (MWP), Little Ice Age (LIA), and the 20th century. Dry conditions persisted at the end of the 12th century, but appear to have been exceeded by a reconstructed drought in the mid-18th century. High interannual variability, including five extremely wet years were reconstructed for a 20-yr period during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and may reflect amplified atmospheric circulation over eastern North America during what appears to have been one of the most widespread cold episodes of the Little Ice Age.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bradley, R. S. and Jones, P. D.: 1992,Climate since A.D. 1500, Routledge, London.
Briffa, K. R., Jones, P. D., Bartholin, T. S., Eckstein, D., Schweingruber, F. H., Karlen, W., Zetterberg, P., and Eronen, M.: 1992, ‘Fennoscandian Summers from A.D. 500: Temperature Changes on Short and Long Timescale’,Clim. Dynam. 7, 111–119.
Chapman, D. S. and Clow, G. D.: 1991, ‘Surface Temperature Histories Reconstructed from Borehole Temperatures: A Geothermal Contribution to the Study of Climate Change’,EOS supplement. Oct. 29, 1991, pp. 69.
Cook, E. R. and Peters, K.: 1981, ‘The Smoothing Spline: A New Approach to Standardizing Forest Interior Ring-Width Series for Dendroclimatic Studies’,Tree-Ring Bull 41, 45–53.
Cook, E. R., Briffa, K. R., Shiyatov, S. G., and Mazepa, V.: 1990, ‘Tree-Ring Standardization and Growth Trends Estimation’, in Cook, E. R. and Kairiukstis, L. A. (eds.),Methods of Dendrochronology, Kluwer, Dordrecht.
Cook, E. R., Bird, T., Peterson, M., Barbetti, M., Buckley, B., D'Arrigo, R., Francey, R., and Tans, P.: 1991, ‘Climatic Change in Tasmania Inferred from a 1089-Year Tree-Ring Chronology of Huon Pine’,Science 253, 1266–1268.
Folland, C. K., Karl, T. R., and Vannikov, K. Ya.: 1990, ‘Observed Climate Variations and Change’, in Houghton, J. T., Jenkins, G. J., and Ephraums, J. J. (eds.),Climate Change; the IPCC Scientific Assessment, Cambridge University Press, pp. 194-238.
Frey, D. G.: 1954, ‘Evidence for the Recent Enlargement of the “Bay” Lakes of North Carolina’,Ecology 35, 78–88.
Fu Congbin: 1990, ‘Climatic Change in China from the Preinstrumental Period to the Last 100 Years’, in Parker, D. W. (ed.),Observed Climate Variations and Change: Contributions in Support of Section 7 of the 1990 IPCC Scientific Assessment, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Geneva.
Graybill, D. A. and Shiyatov, S. G.: 1992, ‘Dendroclimatic Evidence from the Northern Soviet Union’, in Bradley, R. S. and Jones, P. D. (eds.),Climate since A.D. 1500, Routledge, London, pp. 393–414.
Grove, J. M.: 1988,The Little Ice Age, Methuen, London.
Heim, R. R., Jr., Brown, W. O., Owenby, J. R., and Garvin, C.: 1993, ‘Circulation Indices for the Contiguous United States: 1895–1992’,Proceedings of the 17th Annual Climate Diagnostics Workshop, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Washington D.C.
Jones, P. D. and Bradley, R. S.: 1992, ‘Climatic Variations over the Last 500 Years’, in Bradley, R. S. and Jones, P. D. (eds.),Climate since A.D. 1500, Routledge, London, pp. 649–666.
Karl, T. R., Metcalf, L. K., Nicodemus, M. L., and Quayle, R. G.: 1983a, ‘Statewide Average Climatic History, Georgia, 1892–1982’,Historical Climatology Series 6-1, National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, North Carolina.
Karl, T. R., Metcalf, L. K., Nicodemus, M. L., and Quayle, R. G.: 1983b, ‘Statewide Average Climatic History, North Carolina, 1887–1982’,Historical Climatology Series 6-1, National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, North Carolina.
Karl, T. R., Metcalf, L. K., Nicodemus, M. L., and Quayle, R. G.: 1983c, ‘Statewide Average Climatic History, South Carolina, 1887–1982’,Historical Climatology Series 6-1, National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, North Carolina.
Karlen, W.: 1988, ‘Scandinavian Glacial and Climatic Fluctuations during the Holocene’,Quatern. Sci. Rev. 7, 199–209.
LaMarche, V. C., Jr.: 1974, ‘Paleoclimatic Inferences from Long Tree-Ring Records’,Science 183, 1043–1048.
Lamb, H. H.: 1977,Climate: Present, Past, and Future, Volume 2, Methuen, London.
Le Roy Ladurie, E.: 1971,Times of Feast, Times of Famine, Doubleday, New York.
SAS Institute, Inc.: 1989,SAS/STAT User's Guide, Version 6, 4th edition, Vol. 2, SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, North Carolina.
Stahle, D. W., Cleaveland, M. K., and Cerveny, R. S.: 1991, ‘Tree-Ring Reconstructed Sunshine Duration over Central USA’,Int. J. Climatol. 11, 285–295.
Stahle, D. W. and Cleaveland, M. K.: 1992, ‘Reconstruction and Analysis of Spring Rainfall over the Southeastern U.S.A. for the Past 1000 Years’,Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc. 73, 1947–1961.
Stahle, D. W., Van Arsdale, R. B., and Cleaveland, M. K.: 1992, ‘Tectonic Signal in Baldcypress Trees at Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee’,Seismol. Res. Letters 63, 439–447.
Stelle, R. G. D. and Torrie, J. H.; 1980,Principles and Procedures of Statistics, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Dansgaard, W., and Grootes, P. M.: 1986, ‘The Little Ice Age as Recorded in the Stratigraphy of the Tropical Quelccaya Ice Cap’,Science 234, 361–364.
Trenberth, K. E. and Paolino, D. A.: 1980, ‘The Northern Hemisphere Sea Level Pressure Data Set: Trends, Error and Discontinuities’,Mon. Wea. Rev. 108, 855–872.
Villalba, R.: 1990, ‘Climatic Fluctuations in Northern Patagonia during the Last 1000 years as Inferred from Tree-Ring Records’,Quatern. Res. 34, 346–360.
Whitehead, D. R.: 1972, ‘Developmental and Environmental History of the Dismal Swamp’,Ecol. Monogr. 42, 301–315.
Williams, L. D. and Wigley, T. M. L.: 1983, ‘A Comparison of Evidence for Late Holocene Summer Temperature Variations in the Northern Hemisphere’,Quatern. Res. 20, 283–307.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Stahle, D.W., Cleaveland, M.K. Tree-ring reconstructed rainfall over the southeastern U.S.A. during the medieval warm period and little ice age. Climatic Change 26, 199–212 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01092414
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01092414