Abstract
Temperature reconstructions from Europe for the past 500 years based on documentary and instrumental data are analysed. First, the basic documentary data sources, including information about climate and weather-related extremes, are described. Then, the standard palaeoclimatological reconstruction method adopted here is discussed with a particular application to temperature reconstructions from documentary-based proxy data. The focus is on two new reconstructions; January–April mean temperatures for Stockholm (1502–2008), based on a combination of data for the sailing season in the Stockholm harbour and instrumental temperature measurements, and monthly Central European temperature (CEuT) series (1500–2007) based on documentary-derived temperature indices of the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland combined with instrumental records from the same countries. The two series, both of which are individually discussed in greater detail in subsequent papers in this special edition, are here compared and analysed using running correlations and wavelet analysis. While the Stockholm series shows a pronounced low-frequency component, the CEuT series indicates much weaker low-frequency variations. Both series are analysed with respect to three different long-period reconstructions of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and are compared with other European temperature reconstructions based on tree-rings, wine-harvest data and various climate multiproxies. Correlation coefficients between individual proxy-based series show weaker correlations compared to the instrumental data. There are also indications of temporally varying temperature cross-correlations between different areas of Europe. The two temperature reconstructions have also been compared to geographically corresponding temperature output from simulations with global and regional climate models for the past few centuries. The findings are twofold: on the one hand, the analysis reinforces the hypothesis that the index-data based CEuT reconstruction may not appropriately reflect the centennial scale variations. On the other hand, it is possible that climate models may underestimate regional decadal variability. By way of a conclusion, the results are discussed from a broader point of view and attention is drawn to some new challenges for future investigations in the historical climatology in Europe.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Auer I, Böhm R, Jurkovic A, Lipa W, Orlik A, Potzmann R, Schöner W, Ungersböck M, Matulla C, Briffa K, Jones P, Efthymiadis D, Brunetti M, Nanni T, Maugeri M, Mercalli L, Mestre O, Moisselin JM, Begert M, Müller-Westermeier G, Kveton V, Bochnicek O, Stastny P, Lapin M, Szalai S, Szentimrey T, Cegnar T, Dolinar M, Gajic-Capka M, Zaninovic K, Majstorovic Z, Nieplova E (2007) HISTALP—historical instrumental climatological surface time series of the Greater Alpine Region. Int J Climatol 27:17–46
Barriendos M (2005) Climate and culture in Spain. Religious responses to extreme climatic events in the Hispanic Kingdoms (16th–19th centuries). In: Behringer W, Lehmann H, Pfister C (eds) Cultural consequences of the “Little Ice Age”. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, pp 379–414
Barriendos M (2009) Historical climatology in Spain. Conceptual and methodological renovation in view of the challenges of the climate change. In: Kirchhofer A, Krämer D, Merki CA, Poliwoda G, Stuber M, Summermatter S (eds) Nachhaltige Geschichte. Festschrift für Christian Pfister. Chronos, Zürich, pp 49–64
Bell WT, Ogilvie AEJ (1978) Weather compilations as a source of data for the reconstruction of European climate during the Medieval period. Clim Change 1:331–348
Beranová R, Huth R (2008) Time variations of the effects of circulation variability modes on European temperature and precipitation in winter. Int J Climatol 28:139–158
Böhm R (2005) The early instrumental paradox. Presentation at the ALP-IMP third general annual meeting, 6–8 April, Bologna
Böhm R, Jones PD, Hiebl J, Brunetti M, Frank D, Maugeri M (2009) The early instrumental warm-bias: a solution for long Central European temperature series 1760–2007. Clim Change. doi:10.1007/s10584-009-9649-4
Brandsma T, Können GP (2005) Application of nearest-neighbor resampling for homogenizing temperature records on a daily to sub-daily level. Int J Climatol 26:75–89
Brandsma T, Können GP, Wessels HRA (2003) Empirical estimation of the effect of urban heat advection on the temperature series of De Bilt (The Netherlands). Int J Climatol 23:829–845
Brázdil R (1996) Reconstructions of past climate from historical sources in the Czech Lands. In: Jones PD, Bradley RS, Jouzel J (eds) Climatic variations and forcing mechanisms of the last 2000 years. Springer, Berlin, pp 409–431
Brázdil R (2000) Historical climatology: definition, data, methods, results. Geogr Čas 52:99–121
Brázdil R (2002) Patterns of climate in Central Europe since Viking times. In: Wefer G, Berger W, Behre KE, Jansen E (eds) Climate development and history in the north Atlantic realm. Springer, Berlin, pp 355–368
Brázdil R (2003) Historical climatology and its progress after 1990. In: Laszlovsky J, Szabó P (eds) People and nature in historical perspective. Central European University, Budapest, pp 197–227
Brázdil R (2009) Historical climatology and its contribution to climate reconstruction in Europe. In: Kirchhofer A, Krämer D, Merki CA, Poliwoda G, Stuber M, Summermatter S (eds) Nachhaltige Geschichte. Festschrift für Christian Pfister. Chronos, Zürich, pp 65–89
Brázdil R, Budíková M (1999) An urban bias in air temperature fluctuations at the Klementinum, Prague, the Czech Republic. Atmos Environ 33:4211–4217
Brázdil R, Dobrovolný P (2010) Historical climate in Central Europe during the last 500 years. In: Przybylak R, Majorowicz J, Brázdil R, Kejna M (eds) The Polish climate in the European context: an historical overview. Springer, Berlin, pp 41–70
Brázdil R, Valášek H, Sviták Z, Macková J (2002) History of weather and climate in the Czech Lands V. Instrumental meteorological measurements in Moravia up to the end of the eighteenth century. Masaryk University, Brno
Brázdil R, Valášek H, Sviták Z (2003) Meteorological and hydrological extremes in the Dietrichstein domains of Dolní Kounice and Mikulov between 1650 and 1849 according to official economic records of natural disasters. Geogr Čas 55:325–353
Brázdil R, Dobrovolný P, Elleder L, Kakos V, Kotyza O, Květoň V, Macková J, Müller M, Štekl J, Tolasz R, Valášek H (2005a) Historické a současné povodně v České republice (Historical and Recent Floods in the Czech Republic). Masarkova univerzita, Český hydrometeorologický ústav, Brno Praha
Brázdil R, Pfister C, Wanner H, von Storch H, Luterbacher J (2005b) Historical climatology in Europe—the state of the art. Clim Change 70:363–430
Brázdil R, Valášek H, Macková J (2005c) Meteorologická pozorování v Brně v první polovině 19. století. Historie počasí a hydrometeorologických extrémů (Meteorological observations in Brno in the first half of the 19th century. History of weather and hydrometeorological extremes). Archiv města Brna, Brno
Brázdil R, Valášek H, Chromá K (2006) Documentary evidence of an economic character as a source for the study of meteorological and hydrological extremes and their impacts on human activities. Geogr Ann 88A:79–86
Brázdil R, Černušák T, Řezníčková L (2008a) Weather information in the diaries of the Premonstratensian Abbey at Hradisko, in the Czech Republic, 1693–1783. Weather 63:201–207
Brázdil R, Zahradníček P, Dobrovolný P, Kotyza O, Valášek H (2008b) Historical and recent viticulture as a source of climatological knowledge in the Czech Republic. Geografie – Sb Čes Geogr Spol 113:351–371
Brázdil R, Chromá K, Dobrovolný P, Tolasz R (2009) Climate fluctuations in the Czech Republic during the period 1961–2005. Int J Climatol 29:223–242
Briffa KR, Osborn TJ, Schweingruber FH, Jones PD, Shiyatov SG, Vaganov EA (2002) Tree-ring width and density data around the Northern Hemisphere: part 1, local and regional climate signals. Holocene 12:737–758
Brohan P, Kennedy JJ, Haris I, Tett SFB, Jones PD (2006) Uncertainty estimates in regional and global observed temperature changes: a new dataset from 1850. J Geophys Res 111:D12106
Bullón T (2008) Winter temperatures in the second half of the sixteenth century in the central area of the Iberian Peninsula. Clim Past 4:357–367
Büntgen U, Frank DC, Nievergelt D, Esper J (2006) Summer temperature variations in the European Alps, A.D. 755–2004. J Climate 19:5605–5623
Camuffo D (2002) History of the long series of daily air temperature in Padova (1725–1998). Clim Change 53:7–75
Camuffo D, Jones P (eds) (2002) Improved understanding of past climate variability from early daily European instrumental sources. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht
Camuffo D, Bertolin C, Barriendos M, Dominguez-Castro F, Cocheo C, Enzi S, Sghedoni M, della Valle A, Garnier E, Alcoforado MJ, Xoplaki E, Luterbacher J, Diodato N, Maugeri M, Nunes MF, Rodriguez R (2009) 500-year temperature reconstruction in the Mediterranean Basin by means of documentary data and instrumental observations. Clim Change (revised)
Casty C, Wanner H, Luterbacher J, Esper J, Böhm R (2005) Temperature and precipitation variability in the European Alps since 1500. Int J Climatol 25:1855–1880
Chuine I, Yiou P, Viovy N, Seguin B, Daux V, Le Roy Ladurie E (2004) Historical phenology: grape ripening as a past climate indicator. Nature 432:289–290
Cook ER, Briffa KR, Jones PD (1994) Spatial regression methods in dendroclimatology: a review and comparison of two techniques. Int J Climatol 14:379–402
Cook ER, D’Arrigo RD, Mann ME (2002) A well-verified, multiproxy reconstruction of the winter North Atlantic Oscillation Index since A.D. 1400. J Climate 15:1754–1764
de Kraker AMJ (2006) Historical climatology, 1950–2006. An overview of a developing science with a focus on the Low Countries. BELGEO 2006:307–337
Della-Marta PM, Wanner H (2006) A method of homogenizing the extremes and the mean of daily temperature measurements. J Climate 19:4179–4197
Dietrich-Felber U (2004) Using Java and XML in interdisciplinary research: a new data-gathering tool for historians working with EuroClimHist. Hist Methods 37:174–185
Diodato N (2007) Climatic fluctuations in southern Italy since the 17th century: reconstruction with precipitation records at Benevento. Clim Change 80:411–431
Dobrovolný P, Brázdil R, Valášek H, Kotyza O, Macková J, Halíčková M (2009a) A standard palaeoclimatological approach to temperature reconstruction in historical climatology: an example from the Czech Republic, AD 1718–2007. Int J Climatol 29:1478–1492
Dobrovolný P, Moberg A, Brázdil R, Pfister C, Glaser R, Wilson R, van Engelen A, Limanówka D, Kiss A, Halíčková M, Macková J, Riemann D, Luterbacher J, Böhm R (2009b) Monthly and seasonal temperature reconstructions for Central Europe derived from documentary evidence and instrumental records since AD 1500. Clim Change. doi:10.1007/s10584-009-9724-x
Dominguez-Castro F, Santisteban JI, Barriendos M, Mediavilla R (2008) Reconstruction of drought episodes for central Spain from rogation ceremonies recorded at the Toledo Cathedral from 1506 to 1900: a methodological approach. Glob Planet Change 63:230–242
Esper J, Frank DC, Wilson RJS, Briffa KR (2005) Effect of scaling and regression on reconstructed amplitude for the past millennium. Geophys Res Lett 32:L07711
Esper J, Frank DC, Büntgen U, Verstege A, Luterbacher J, Xoplaki E (2007) Long-term drought severity variations in Morocco. Geophys Res Lett 34:L17702
Frank D, Büntgen U, Böhm R, Maugeri M, Esper J (2007) Warmer early instrumental measurements versus colder reconstructed temperatures: shooting at a moving target. Quat Sci Rev 26:3298–3310
García-Herrera R, Können GP, Wheeler D, Prieto MR, Jones PD, Koek FB (2005) CLIWOC: a climatological database for the world’s oceans 1750–1854. Clim Change 73:1–12
Gimmi U, Luterbacher J, Pfister C, Wanner H (2007) A method to reconstruct long precipitation series using systematic descriptive observations in weather diaries: the example of the precipitation series for Bern, Switzerland (1760–2003). Theor Appl Climatol 87:185–199
Glaser R (2001) Klimageschichte Mitteleuropas. 1000 Jahre Wetter, Klima, Katastrophen. Primus, Darmstadt
Glaser R (2008) Klimageschichte Mitteleuropas. 1200 Jahre Wetter, Klima, Katastrophen. Primus, Darmstadt
Glaser R, Riemann D (2009) A thousand year record of climate variation for Central Europe at a monthly resolution. J Quat Sci 24:437–449
Glaser R, Riemann D, Schönbein J, Barriendos M, Brázdil R, Bertolin C, Camuffo C, Deutsch M, Dobrovolný P, van Engelen A, Enzi S, Halíčková M, Koenig SJ, Kotyza O, Limanowka D, Macková J, Sghedoni M, Martin B, Himmelsbach I (2009) 500 years variability of European floods. Clim Change (revised)
Grove JM, Conterio A (1994) Climate in the eastern and central Mediterranean, 1675 to 1715. In: Frenzel B, Pfister C, Gläser B (eds) Climatic trends and anomalies in Europe 1675–1715. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart, pp 275–286
Guiot J, Nicault A, Rathegeber C, Edouard JL, Guibal F, Pichard G, Till C (2005) Last-millenium summer temperature variations in western Europe based on proxy data. Holocene 15:489–500.
Harms W, Schilling M (2008) Das illustrierte Flugblatt der frühen Neuzeit: Traditionen, Wirkungen, Kontexte. S. Hirzel, Stuttgart
Hirschi JJM, Sinha B (2007) Negative NAO and cold Eurasian winters: how exceptional was the winter of 1962/1963? Weather 62:43–48
Hurrell JW (1995) Decadal trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation: regional temperatures and precipitation. Science 269:676–679
Jacobeit J, Jönsson P, Bärring L, Beck C, Ekström M (2001) Zonal indices for Europe 1780–1995 and running correlations with temperature. Clim Change 48:219–241
Jevrejeva S (2001) Severity of winter seasons in the northern Baltic Sea between 1529 and 1990: reconstruction and analysis. Clim Res 17:55–62
Jones PD (1999) Classics in physical geography revisited. Prog Phys Geogr 23:425–428
Jones PD (2001) Early European instrumental records. In: Jones PD, Ogilvie AEJ, Davies TD, Briffa KR (eds) History and climate: memories of the future? Plenum, New York, pp 55–77
Jones P (2008) Historical climatology—a state of the art review. Weather 63:181–186
Jones PD, Briffa KR (2006) Unusual climate in northwest Europe during the period 1730 to 1745 based on instrumental and documentary data. Clim Change 79:361–379
Jones P, Hulme M (1997) The changing temperature of Central England. In: Hulme M, Barrow E (eds) Climates of the British Isles: present, past and future. Routledge, London, pp 173–196
Jones PD, Briffa KR, Osborn TJ (2003) Changes in the Northern Hemisphere annual cycle: implications for paleoclimatology? J Geophys Res 108:4588
Jones PD, Briffa KR, Osborn TJ, Lough JM, van Ommen TD, Vinther BM, Luterbacher J, Wahl ER, Zwiers FW, Mann ME, Schmidt GA, Ammann CM, Buckley BM, Cobb KM, Esper J, Goosse H, Graham N, Jansen E, Kiefer T, Kull C, Küttel M, Mosley-Thompson E, Overpeck JT, Riedwyl N, Schulz M, Tudhope AW, Villalba R, Wanner H, Wolff E, Xoplaki E (2009) High-resolution palaeoclimatology of the last millennium: a review of current status and future prospects. Holocene 19:3–49
Kajander J (1993) Methodological aspects on river cryophenology exemplified by a tricentenniel break-up time series from Tornio. Geophysica 29:73–95
Kiss A (2009) Historical climatology in Hungary: role of documentary evidence in the study of past climates and hydrometeorological extremes. Idöjárás 113:315–339
Koslowski G, Glaser R (1999) Variations in reconstructed ice winter severity in the Western Baltic from 1501 to 1995, and their implications for the North Atlantic Oscillation. Clim Change 41:175–191
Kuglitsch FG, Toreti A, Xoplaki E, Della-Marta PM, Luterbacher J, Wanner H (2009) Homogenization of daily maximum temperature series in the Mediterranean. J Geophys Res 114:D15108
Legrand JP, LeGoff M (1992) Les observations météorologiques de Louis Morin entre 1670 et 1713. Monographie 6, Direction de la Météorologie Nationale, Paris
Leijonhufvud L, Wilson R, Moberg A (2008) Documentary data provide evidence of Stockholm average winter to spring temperatures in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Holocene 18:333–343
Leijonhufvud L, Wilson R, Moberg A, Söderberg J, Retsö D, Söderlind U (2009) Five centuries of Stockholm winter/spring temperatures reconstructed from documentary evidence and instrumental observations. Clim Change. doi:10.1007/s10584-009-9650-y
Luterbacher J, Xoplaki E, Dietrich D, Jones PD, Davies TD, Portis D, Gonzalez-Rouco JF, von Storch H, Gyalistras D, Casty C, Wanner H (2002) Extending North Atlantic Oscillation reconstructions back to 1500. Atmos Sci Lett 2:114–124
Luterbacher J, Dietrich D, Xoplaki E, Grosjean M, Wanner H (2004) European seasonal and annual temperature variability, trends and extremes since 1500. Science 303:1499–1503
Luterbacher J, Liniger MA, Menzel A, Estrella N, Della-Marta PM, Pfister C, Rutishauser T, Xoplaki E (2007) The exceptional European warmth of autumn 2006 and winter 2007: historical context, the underlying dynamics and its phenological impacts. Geophys Res Lett 34:L12704
Luterbacher J, Koenig SJ, Franke J, van der Schrier G, Zorita E, Moberg A, Jacobeit J, Della-Marta PM, Küttel M, Xoplaki E, Wheeler D, Rutishauer T, Stössel M, Wanner H, Brázdil R, Dobrovolný P, Camuffo D, Bertolin C, van Engelen A, Gonzalez-Rouco FJ, Wilson R, Pfister C, Limanówka D, Nordli Ø, Leijonhufvud L, Söderberg J, Allan R, Barriendos M, Glaser R, Riemann D, Hao Z, Zerefos CS (2009) Circulation dynamics and its influence on European and Mediterranean January–April climate over the past half millennium: results and insights from instrumental data, documentary evidence and coupled climate models. Clim Change. doi:10.1007/s10584-009-9782-0
Macdonald N (2007) Epigraphic records: a valuable resource in re-assessing flood risk and long-term climate variability. Environ Hist 12:136–140
Macdonald N, Jones CA, Davies SJ, Charnell-White C (2009) Historical weather accounts from Wales: an assessment of their potential for reconstructing climate. Weather (in press)
Manley G (1974) Central England temperatures: monthly means 1659 to 1973. Q J R Meteorol Soc 100:389–405
Mariani L, Parisi S, Failla O, Cola G, Zoia G, Bonardi L (2009) Tirano (1624–1930): a long time series of harvest dates for grapevine. Italian Journal of Agrometeorology 14:7–16
Mauelshagen F (2008) Wunderkammer auf Papier. Die Wickiana zwischen Reformation und Volksglaube. Studentendruckerei, Zürich
Meier N, Rutishauser T, Pfister C, Wanner H, Luterbacher J (2007) Grape harvest dates as a proxy for Swiss April to August temperature reconstructions back to AD 1480. Geophys Res Lett 34:L20705
Moberg A, Bergström H, Ruiz Kringsman J, Svanered O (2002) Daily air temperature and pressure series for Stockholm (1756–1998). Clim Change 53:171–212
Moberg A, Alexandersson H, Bergström H, Jones PD (2003) Were Southern Swedish summer temperatures before 1860 as warm as measured? Int J Climatol 23:1495–1521
Munzar J, Deutsch M, Elleder L, Ondráček S, Kallabová E, Hrádek M (2006) Historical floods in Central Europe and their documentation by means of floodmarks and other epigraphical monuments. Morav Geogr Rep 14:26–44
Niedźwiedź T (2004) Rekonstrukcja warunków termicznych lata w Tatrach od 1550 roku (Reconstruction of summer temperature in the Tatra Mountains since 1550). In: Kotarba A (ed) Rola małej epoki lodowej w przekształcaniu środowiska przyrodniczego. Tatr Prace Geogr 197:57–88
Nordli O, Lundstad E, Ogilvie AEJ (2007) A late winter–early spring temperature reconstruction for Southeastern Norway from 1758–2006. Ann Glaciol 46:404–408
Nussbaumer S, Zumbühl HJ, Steiner D (2007) Fluctuations of the Mer de Glace (Mont Blanc area, France) AD 1500–2050. An interdisciplinary approach using new historical data and neural network simulations. Z Gletsch.kd Glazialgeol 40:4–183
Parker DE, Legg TP, Folland CK (1992) A new daily Central England temperature series. Int J Climatol 12:317–342
Peterson TC, Easterling DR, Karl TR, Groisman P, Auer I, Böhm R, Plummer N, Nicholis N, Torok S, Vincent L, Tuomenvirta H, Salinger J, Førland EJ, Hanssen-Bauer I, Alexandersson H, Jones P, Parker D (1998) Homogeneity adjustments of in situ atmospheric climate data: a review. Int J Climatol 18:1493–1517
Pfister C (1978) Die älteste Niederschlagsreihe Mitteleuropas: Zürich 1708–1754. Meteorol Rundsch 31:56–62
Pfister C (1984) Klimageschichte der Schweiz 1525–1860. Das Klima der Schweiz und seine Bedeutung in der Geschichte von Bevölkerung und Landwirtschaft. Paul Haupt, Bern
Pfister C (1992) Monthly temperature and precipitation in central Europe 1525–1979: quantifying documentary evidence on weather and its effects. In: Bradley RS, Jones PD (eds) Climate Since AD 1500. Routledge, London, pp 118–143
Pfister C (1999) Wetternachhersage. 500 Jahre Klimavariationen und Naturkatastrophen (1496–1995). Paul Haupt, Bern
Pfister C (2001) Klimawandel in der Geschichte Europas. Zur Entwicklung und zum Potenzial der Historischen Klimatologie. Österr Z Geschwiss 12:7–43
Pfister C, Bareiss W (1994) The climate in Paris between 1675 and 1715 according to the Meteorological Journal of Louis Morin. In: Frenzel B, Pfister C, Gläser B (eds) Climatic trends and anomalies in Europe 1675–1715. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart, pp 151–171
Pfister C, Brázdil R (1999) Climatic variability in sixteenth-century Europe and its social dimension: a synthesis. Clim Change 43:5–53
Pfister C, Brázdil R (2006) Social vulnerability to climate in the “Little Ice Age”: an example from Central Europe in the early 1770s. Clim Past 2:115–129
Pfister C, Schüle H (1994) Coding climate proxy information for the EURO-CLIMHIST data-base. In: Frenzel B, Pfister C, Gläser B (eds) Climatic trends and anomalies in Europe 1675–1715. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart, pp 461–476
Pfister C, Brázdil R, Glaser R, Barriendos M, Camuffo D, Deutsch M, Dobrovolný P, Enzi S, Guidoboni E, Kotyza O, Militzer S, Rácz L, Rodrigo FS (1999) Documentary evidence on climate in sixteenth-century Europe. Clim Change 43:55–110
Pfister C, Brázdil R, Obrebska-Starkel B, Starkel L, Heino R, von Storch H (2001) Strides made in reconstructing past weather and climate. EOS—Transactions American Geophysical Union 82:248
Pfister C, Luterbacher J, Wanner H, Wheeler D, Brázdil R, Ge Q, Hao Z, Moberg A, Grab S, del Prieto MR (2008) Documentary evidence as climate proxies. Proxy-specific white paper produced from the PAGES/CLIVAR workshop, Trieste, PAGES (Past Global Changes), Bern. Available at http://www.pages-igbp.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/products.woa/wa/product?id=331
Pfister C, Garnier E, Alcoforado MJ, Wheeler D, Luterbacher J, Nuňes MF, Taborda JP (2009) “France has never experienced such a disaster!” The meteorological framework and the cultural memory of three severe winter-storms in early eighteenth-century Europe. Clim Change. doi:10.1007/s10584-009-9784-y
Raicich F (2008) Some features of Trieste climate from an eighteenth century diary (1732–1749). Clim Change 86:211–226
Réthly A (1962–1999) Időjárási események és elemi csapások Magyarországon 1700ig, 1701–1800, 1801–1900 (Weather events and natural extremes in Hungary—4 volumes). Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest
Rodrigo FS, Esteban-Parra MJ, Pozo-Vazquez D, Castro-Diez Y (1999) A 500-year precipitation record in Southern Spain. Int J Climatol 19:1233–1253
Rohr C (2007) Extreme Naturereignisse im Ostalpenraum. Naturerfahrung im Spätmittelalter und am Beginn der Neuzeit. Böhlau, Köln
Rutishauser T, Luterbacher J, Jeanneret F, Pfister C, Wanner H (2007) A phenology-based reconstruction of interannual changes in past spring seasons. J Geophys Res 112:G04016
Rutishauser T, Luterbacher J, Defila C, Frank D, Wanner H (2008) Swiss spring plant phenology 2007: extremes, a multi-century perspective and changes in temperature sensitivity. Geophys Res Lett 35:L05703
Shabalova MV, van Engelen AFV (2003) Evaluation of a reconstruction of winter and summer temperatures in the Low Countries, AD 764–1998. Clim Change 58:219–242
Slonosky VC (2002) Wet winters, dry summers? Three centuries of precipitation data from Paris. Geophys Res Lett 29:1-1–1-4
Slonosky VC, Yiou P (2002) Does the NAO index represent zonal flow? The influence of the NAO on North Atlantic surface temperature. Clim Dyn 19:17–30
Slonosky VC, Jones PD, Davies TD (2001) Instrumental pressure observation from the 17th and 18th centuries: London and Paris. Int J Climatol 21:285–298
Štěpánek P, Zahradníček P, Skalák P (2009) Data quality control and homogenization of air temperature and precipitation series in the area of the Czech Republic in the period 1961–2007. Adv Sci Res 1:1–4
Stone B (2007) Urban and rural temperature trends in proximity to large US cities: 1951–2000. Int J Climatol 27:1801–1807
Tarand A, Nordli PØ (2001) The Tallinn temperature series reconstructed back half a millennium by use of proxy data. Clim Change 48:189–199
Telelis IG (2008) Climatic fluctuations in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East AD 300–1500 from Byzantine documentary and proxy physical palaeoclimatic evidence—a comparison. Jahrb Österr Byz 58:167–207
Torrence C, Compo GP (1998) A practical guide to wavelet analysis. Bull Am Meteor Soc 79:61–78
Trouet V, Esper J, Graham NE, Baker A, Scourse JD, Frank DC (2009) Persistent positive North Atlantic Oscillation mode dominated the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Science 324:78–80
van den Dool HM, Schuurmans CJE, Krijnen HJ (1978) Average winter temperatures at De Bilt (The Netherlands), 1634–1977. Clim Change 1:319–330
van Engelen AFV, Buisman J, IJnsen F (2001) A millennium of weather, winds and water in the Low Countries. In: Jones PD, Ogilvie AEJ, Davies TD, Briffa KR (eds) History and climate: memories of the future? Plenum, New York, pp 101–124
Wales-Smith GB (1971) Monthly and annual totals of rainfall representative of Kew, Surrey, for 1697 to 1970. Meteorol Mag 100:345–362
Wang R, Wang S, Fraedrich K (1991) An approach to reconstruction of temperature on a seasonal basis using historical documents from China. Int J Climatol 11:381–392
Weikinn C (1958–2002) Quellentexte zur Witterungsgeschichte Europas bis zum Jahre 1850. Hydrographie. Teil 1 (Zeitwende–1500), Teil 2 (1501–1600), Teil 3 (1601–1700), Teil 4 (1701–1750), Teil 5 (1751–1800), Teil 6 (1801–1850). Akademie, Berlin
Wheeler D (2006) Archives and climatic change: how old documents offer a key to understanding the world’s weather. Archives 31:119–132
Wheeler D (2009) British ships’ logbooks as a source of historical climatic information. In: Kirchhofer A, Krämer D, Merki CA, Poliwoda G, Stuber M, Summermatter S (eds) Nachhaltige Geschichte. Festschrift für Christian Pfister. Chronos, Zürich, pp 109–126
Wheeler D, Garcia-Herrera R (2009) Ships’ logbooks in climatological research: reflections and prospects. Ann NY Acad Sci 1146:1–15
Wheeler D, Garcia-Herrera R, Wilkinson CW, Ward C (2009) Atmospheric circulation and storminess derived from Royal Navy logbooks: 1685 to 1750. Clim Change. doi:10.1007/s10584-009-9732-x
Wilson R, Topham J (2004) Violins and climate. Theor Appl Climatol 77:9–24
Wilson R, Tudhope A, Brohan P, Briffa K, Osborn T, Tett S (2006) Two-hundred-fifty years of reconstructed and modeled tropical temperatures. J Geophys Res 111:C10007
Winkler P (2009) Revision and necessary correction of the long-term temperature series of Hohenpeissenberg, 1781–2006. Theor Appl Climatol 98:259–268
Xoplaki E, Luterbacher J, Paeth H, Dietrich D, Steiner N, Grosjean M, Wanner H (2005) European spring and autumn temperature variability and change of extremes over the last half millenium. Geophys Res Lett 32:L15713
Zorita E, Moberg A, Leijonhufvud L, Wilson R, Brázdil R, Dobrovolný P, Luterbacher J, Böhm R, Pfister C, Glaser R, Söderberg J, González-Rouco F (2009) European temperature records of the past five centuries based on documentary information compared to climate simulations. Clim Change (revised)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brázdil, R., Dobrovolný, P., Luterbacher, J. et al. European climate of the past 500 years: new challenges for historical climatology. Climatic Change 101, 7–40 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-009-9783-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-009-9783-z