Reconstructions of droughts in Germany since 1500 – combining hermeneutic information and instrumental records in historical and modern perspectives

Glaser, Rüdiger; Kahle, Michael

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1207-2020

Articles | Volume 16, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1207-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Droughts over centuries: what can documentary evidence tell...

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1207-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 4

Research article

|

10 Jul 2020

Research article |

| 10 Jul 2020

Reconstructions of droughts in Germany since 1500 – combining hermeneutic information and instrumental records in historical and modern perspectives

Rüdiger Glaser and Michael Kahle

Data sets

Temperature and Hygric Indices for Central Europe since AD 1500 R. Glaser and M. Kahle https://doi.org/10.6094/tambora.org/2019/c493/csv.zip

climdata/drought2019: Reconstructions of Droughts in Germany since 1500 M. Kahle and R. Glaser https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3405167

Droughts in Germany 1500-2019 - Drought and Wetness showing Precipitation Index (PI) M. Kahle and R. Glaser https://doi.org/10.5446/45191

Droughts in Germany 1500-2019 - Drought Periods showing Historical Humidity Index (HHI) M. Kahle and R. Glaser https://doi.org/10.5446/45189

Short summary

A new study on droughts in Germany since 1500 reveals the long-term trend of single extreme events, as well as drier periods. Extreme droughts appeared in 1540, 1590, 1615, 1706, 1834, 1893, 1921, 1949 and 2018. Like today, droughts had manifold impacts such as harvest failures, water deficits, low water levels and forest fires. This had different societal consequences ranging from famine, disease, rising prices, migration and riots leading to subsidies and discussions on climate change.