Article

The 1430s: a cold period of extraordinary internal climate variability during the early Spörer Minimum with social and economic impacts in north-western and central Europe

Details

Citation

Camenisch C, Keller KM, Salvisberg M, Amann B, Bauch M, Blumer S, Brázdil R, Brönnimann S, Büntgen U, Campbell BMS, Fernández-Donado L, Fleitmann D, Glaser R, González-Rouco F & Slavin P (2016) The 1430s: a cold period of extraordinary internal climate variability during the early Spörer Minimum with social and economic impacts in north-western and central Europe. Climate of the Past, 12 (11), pp. 2107-2126. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-2107-2016

Abstract
Changes in climate affected human societies throughout the last millennium. While European cold periods in the 17th and 18th century have been assessed in detail, earlier cold periods received much less attention due to sparse information available. New evidence from proxy archives, historical documentary sources and climate model simulations permit us to provide an interdisciplinary, systematic assessment of an exceptionally cold period in the 15th century. Our assessment includes the role of internal, unforced climate variability and external forcing in shaping extreme climatic conditions and the impacts on and responses of the medieval society in north-western and central Europe. Climate reconstructions from a multitude of natural and anthropogenic archives indicate that the 1430s were the coldest decade in north-western and central Europe in the 15th century. This decade is characterised by cold winters and average to warm summers resulting in a strong seasonal cycle in temperature. Results from comprehensive climate models indicate consistently that these conditions occurred by chance due to the partly chaotic internal variability within the climate system. External forcing like volcanic eruptions tends to reduce simulated temperature seasonality and cannot explain the reconstructions. The strong seasonal cycle in temperature reduced food production and led to increasing food prices, a subsistence crisis and a famine in parts of Europe. Societies were not prepared to cope with failing markets and interrupted trade routes. In response to the crisis, authorities implemented numerous measures of supply policy and adaptation such as the installation of grain storage capacities to be prepared for future food production shortfalls.

Keywords
Stratigraphy; Palaeontology; Global and Planetary Change

Notes
Additional co-authors: Martin Grosjean, Richard C Hoffmann, Heli Huhtamaa, Fortunat Joos, Andrea Kiss, Oldrich Kotyza, Flavio Lehner, Jürg Luterbacher, Nicolas Maughan, Raphael Neukom, Theresa Novy, Kathleen Pribyl, Christoph C Raible, Dirk Riemann, Maximilian Schuh, Johannes P. Werner, and Oliver Wetter

Journal
Climate of the Past: Volume 12, Issue 11

StatusPublished
FundersUniversity of Kent
Publication date31/12/2016
Publication date online01/12/2016
Date accepted by journal03/11/2016
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/30396
PublisherCopernicus GmbH
ISSN1814-9324
eISSN1814-9332

People (1)

People

Professor Philip Slavin

Professor Philip Slavin

Professor, History