Abstract
Monthly mean surface pressure patterns in the European area are reconstructed for those winter and summer seasons of the 16th century with outstanding climatic anomalies being either widespread over Europe or remarkably intensive in some European regions. From the available documentary information about weather characteristics and their sequences, it proved possible to infer prevalent processes of lower tropospheric advection of typical air masses and to assess the position and strength of major surface pressure centres on a monthly scale. For comparison with modern pressure patterns, monthly mean sea level pressure (SLP) grids from the 20th century have been selected for seasons with similar climatic anomalies. There are broad coincidences between these pressure patterns of the 16th and the 20th centuries except for cold summer seasons. Finally, results from the 16th century are discussed in terms of circulation dynamics (different phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) in winter, decreasing frequency of anticyclonic ridging in summer).
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Jacobeit, J., Wanner, H., Koslowski, G. et al. European Surface Pressure Patterns for Months with Outstanding Climatic Anomalies During the Sixteenth Century. Climatic Change 43, 201–221 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005594216878
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005594216878