Publication details
Five centuries of Central European temperature extremes reconstructed from tree-ring density and documentary evidence
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2010 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Global and Planetary Change |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://www.elsevier.com/%20locate/gloplacha |
| Field | Atmosphere sciences, meteorology |
| Keywords | temperature extremes maximum latewood density documentary evidence European Alps Central Europe palaeoclimatology |
| Description | Future climate change will likely in"uence the frequency and intensity of weather extremes. As such events are by de!nition rare, long records are required to understand their characteristics, drivers, and consequences on ecology and society. Herein we provide a unique perspective on regional-scale temperature extremes over the past millennium, using three tree-ring maximum latewood density (MXD) chronologies from higher elevations in the European Alps. We verify the tree-ring-based extremes using documentary evidences from Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Central Europe that allowed the identi!cation of 44 summer extremes over the 1550-2003 period. These events include cold temperatures in 1579, 1628, 1675, and 1816, as well as warm ones in 1811 and 2003. Prior to 1550, we provide new evidence for cold (e.g., 1068 and 1258) and warm (e.g., 1333) summers derived from the combined MXD records and thus help to characterize high-frequency temperature variability during medieval times. Spatial coherence of the reconstructed extremes is found over Switzerland, with most signatures even extending across Central Europe. We discuss potential limitations of the tree-ring and documentary archives, including the (i) ability of MXD to particularly capture extremely warm temperatures, (ii) methodological identi!cation and relative de!nition of extremes, and (iii) placement of those events in the millennium-long context of low-frequency climate change. |