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.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1207-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
10 Jul 2020
Research article |
| 10 Jul 2020
| 10 Jul 2020
Reconstructions of droughts in Germany since 1500 – combining hermeneutic information and instrumental records in historical and modern perspectives
Rüdiger Glaser
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Physical Geography, Institute of Environmental Social Sciences and
Geography, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79098, Germany
Michael Kahle
Physical Geography, Institute of Environmental Social Sciences and
Geography, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79098, Germany
Related authors
Nils Riach, Nicolas Scholze, and Rüdiger Glaser
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-2021-385, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-2021-385, 2021
Manuscript not accepted for further review
Short summary
Short summary
In this study we examine the spatial patterns of risk towards climate change and climatic extremes in the “Trinational Metropolitan Region Upper Rhine” (TMU). Following the concept of risk analysis, we identify the regional dimension of climatic stressors in relation to the socio-economic dimension. The results show differentiated spatial patterns of risk with cross-border clusters i.e. transnational corridors.
Mathilde Erfurt, Georgios Skiadaresis, Erik Tijdeman, Veit Blauhut, Jürgen Bauhus, Rüdiger Glaser, Julia Schwarz, Willy Tegel, and Kerstin Stahl
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2979–2995, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-2979-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-2979-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Droughts are multifaceted hazards with widespread negative consequences for the environment and society. This study explores different perspectives on drought and determines the added value of multidisciplinary datasets for a comprehensive understanding of past drought events in southwestern Germany. A long-term evaluation of drought frequency since 1801 revealed that events occurred in all decades, but a particular clustering was found in the mid-19th century and the most recent decade.
Florie Giacona, Brice Martin, Benjamin Furst, Rüdiger Glaser, Nicolas Eckert, Iso Himmelsbach, and Charlotte Edelblutte
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 1653–1683, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-19-1653-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-19-1653-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The article presents the Alsatian regional flood risk observatory ORRION, a participative online platform on which information is shared between individuals, stakeholders, engineers, and scientists. This maximizes knowledge capitalization and contributes to building a common knowledge base for flood risk. From this information, long chronicles of floods are derived for the Rhine, and most of its main Alsatian tributaries and their main characteristics are identified and analysed.
Rüdiger Glaser, Iso Himmelsbach, and Annette Bösmeier
Clim. Past, 13, 1573–1592, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1573-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1573-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents the extent to which climate, harvest and prices influenced the major migration waves from southwest Germany into North America during the 19th century, a century of dramatic climatic and societal changes.
Chantal Camenisch, Kathrin M. Keller, Melanie Salvisberg, Benjamin Amann, Martin Bauch, Sandro Blumer, Rudolf Brázdil, Stefan Brönnimann, Ulf Büntgen, Bruce M. S. Campbell, Laura Fernández-Donado, Dominik Fleitmann, Rüdiger Glaser, Fidel González-Rouco, Martin Grosjean, Richard C. Hoffmann, Heli Huhtamaa, Fortunat Joos, Andrea Kiss, Oldřich Kotyza, Flavio Lehner, Jürg Luterbacher, Nicolas Maughan, Raphael Neukom, Theresa Novy, Kathleen Pribyl, Christoph C. Raible, Dirk Riemann, Maximilian Schuh, Philip Slavin, Johannes P. Werner, and Oliver Wetter
Clim. Past, 12, 2107–2126, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-2107-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-2107-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
Throughout the last millennium, several cold periods occurred which affected humanity. Here, we investigate an exceptionally cold decade during the 15th century. The cold conditions challenged the food production and led to increasing food prices and a famine in parts of Europe. In contrast to periods such as the “Year Without Summer” after the eruption of Tambora, these extreme climatic conditions seem to have occurred by chance and in relation to the internal variability of the climate system.
O. Böhm, J. Jacobeit, R. Glaser, and K.-F. Wetzel
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 4721–4734, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-4721-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-4721-2015, 2015
I. Himmelsbach, R. Glaser, J. Schoenbein, D. Riemann, and B. Martin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 4149–4164, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-4149-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-4149-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
The article presents a long-term analysis of flood occurrence along the southern part of the Upper Rhine River system and of 14 of its tributaries in France and Germany since 1480 BC. Special focus is given to temporal and spatial variations of flood events and their underlying meteorological causes over time, knowledge about the historical aspects of flood protection and flood vulnerability, while comparing selected historical and modern extreme events, establishing a common evaluation scheme.
Nils Riach, Nicolas Scholze, and Rüdiger Glaser
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-2021-385, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-2021-385, 2021
Manuscript not accepted for further review
Short summary
Short summary
In this study we examine the spatial patterns of risk towards climate change and climatic extremes in the “Trinational Metropolitan Region Upper Rhine” (TMU). Following the concept of risk analysis, we identify the regional dimension of climatic stressors in relation to the socio-economic dimension. The results show differentiated spatial patterns of risk with cross-border clusters i.e. transnational corridors.
Mathilde Erfurt, Georgios Skiadaresis, Erik Tijdeman, Veit Blauhut, Jürgen Bauhus, Rüdiger Glaser, Julia Schwarz, Willy Tegel, and Kerstin Stahl
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2979–2995, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-2979-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-2979-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Droughts are multifaceted hazards with widespread negative consequences for the environment and society. This study explores different perspectives on drought and determines the added value of multidisciplinary datasets for a comprehensive understanding of past drought events in southwestern Germany. A long-term evaluation of drought frequency since 1801 revealed that events occurred in all decades, but a particular clustering was found in the mid-19th century and the most recent decade.
Florie Giacona, Brice Martin, Benjamin Furst, Rüdiger Glaser, Nicolas Eckert, Iso Himmelsbach, and Charlotte Edelblutte
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 1653–1683, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-19-1653-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-19-1653-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The article presents the Alsatian regional flood risk observatory ORRION, a participative online platform on which information is shared between individuals, stakeholders, engineers, and scientists. This maximizes knowledge capitalization and contributes to building a common knowledge base for flood risk. From this information, long chronicles of floods are derived for the Rhine, and most of its main Alsatian tributaries and their main characteristics are identified and analysed.
Rüdiger Glaser, Iso Himmelsbach, and Annette Bösmeier
Clim. Past, 13, 1573–1592, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1573-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1573-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents the extent to which climate, harvest and prices influenced the major migration waves from southwest Germany into North America during the 19th century, a century of dramatic climatic and societal changes.
Chantal Camenisch, Kathrin M. Keller, Melanie Salvisberg, Benjamin Amann, Martin Bauch, Sandro Blumer, Rudolf Brázdil, Stefan Brönnimann, Ulf Büntgen, Bruce M. S. Campbell, Laura Fernández-Donado, Dominik Fleitmann, Rüdiger Glaser, Fidel González-Rouco, Martin Grosjean, Richard C. Hoffmann, Heli Huhtamaa, Fortunat Joos, Andrea Kiss, Oldřich Kotyza, Flavio Lehner, Jürg Luterbacher, Nicolas Maughan, Raphael Neukom, Theresa Novy, Kathleen Pribyl, Christoph C. Raible, Dirk Riemann, Maximilian Schuh, Philip Slavin, Johannes P. Werner, and Oliver Wetter
Clim. Past, 12, 2107–2126, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-2107-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-2107-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
Throughout the last millennium, several cold periods occurred which affected humanity. Here, we investigate an exceptionally cold decade during the 15th century. The cold conditions challenged the food production and led to increasing food prices and a famine in parts of Europe. In contrast to periods such as the “Year Without Summer” after the eruption of Tambora, these extreme climatic conditions seem to have occurred by chance and in relation to the internal variability of the climate system.
O. Böhm, J. Jacobeit, R. Glaser, and K.-F. Wetzel
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 4721–4734, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-4721-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-4721-2015, 2015
I. Himmelsbach, R. Glaser, J. Schoenbein, D. Riemann, and B. Martin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 4149–4164, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-4149-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-4149-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
The article presents a long-term analysis of flood occurrence along the southern part of the Upper Rhine River system and of 14 of its tributaries in France and Germany since 1480 BC. Special focus is given to temporal and spatial variations of flood events and their underlying meteorological causes over time, knowledge about the historical aspects of flood protection and flood vulnerability, while comparing selected historical and modern extreme events, establishing a common evaluation scheme.
Related subject area
Subject: Proxy Use-Development-Validation | Archive: Historical Records | Timescale: Centennial-Decadal
Multiproxy tree ring reconstruction of glacier mass balance: insights from Pinus cembra trees growing near Silvretta Glacier (Swiss Alps)
Effects of weather and climate on fluctuations of grain prices in southwestern Bohemia, 1725–1824 CE
The Spatial-Temporal Evolution of the Chongzhen Drought (1627–1644) in China and its Impact on Famine
Climate and disease in historical urban space: evidence from 19th century Poznań, Poland
Climatic signatures in early modern European grain harvest yields
Pre-industrial temperature variability on the Swiss Plateau derived from the instrumental daily series of Bern and Zurich
Is it possible to estimate aerosol optical depth from historic colour paintings?
Meteorological and climatological triggers of notable past and present bark beetle outbreaks in the Czech Republic
Quantifying and reducing researcher subjectivity in the generation of climate indices from documentary sources
Documentary-based climate reconstructions in the Czech Lands 1501–2020 CE and their European context
Controlling water infrastructure and codifying water knowledge: institutional responses to severe drought in Barcelona (1620–1650)
Reassessing long-term drought risk and societal impacts in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, north-east China (1200–2015)
Climate records in ancient Chinese diaries and their application in historical climate reconstruction – a case study of Yunshan Diary
A survey of the impact of summer droughts in southern and eastern England, 1200–1700
A 424-year tree-ring-based Palmer Drought Severity Index reconstruction of Cedrus deodara D. Don from the Hindu Kush range of Pakistan: linkages to ocean oscillations
Droughts in the area of Poland in recent centuries in the light of multi-proxy data
Rogation ceremonies: a key to understanding past drought variability in northeastern Spain since 1650
The longest homogeneous series of grape harvest dates, Beaune 1354–2018, and its significance for the understanding of past and present climate
The weather behind words – new methodologies for integrated hydrometeorological reconstruction through documentary sources
Extreme droughts and human responses to them: the Czech Lands in the pre-instrumental period
Documentary data and the study of past droughts: a global state of the art
A 414-year tree-ring-based April–July minimum temperature reconstruction and its implications for the extreme climate events, northeast China
Streamflow variability over the 1881–2011 period in northern Québec: comparison of hydrological reconstructions based on tree rings and geopotential height field reanalysis
Temperature changes derived from phenological and natural evidence in South Central China from 1850 to 2008
Droughts in the Czech Lands, 1090–2012 AD
Temperature changes over the past 2000 yr in China and comparison with the Northern Hemisphere
Multi-periodic climate dynamics: spectral analysis of long-term instrumental and proxy temperature records
An open-access database of grape harvest dates for climate research: data description and quality assessment
Winter temperature variations over the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River since 1736 AD
Assessing extreme droughts in Spain during 1750–1850 from rogation ceremonies
Continental atmospheric circulation over Europe during the Little Ice Age inferred from grape harvest dates
Hydrometeorological extremes derived from taxation records for south-eastern Moravia, Czech Republic, 1751–1900 AD
A shift in the spatial pattern of Iberian droughts during the 17th century
Jérôme Lopez-Saez, Christophe Corona, Lenka Slamova, Matthias Huss, Valérie Daux, Kurt Nicolussi, and Markus Stoffel
Clim. Past, 20, 1251–1267, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1251-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1251-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Glaciers in the European Alps have been retreating since the 1850s. Monitoring glacier mass balance is vital for understanding global changes, but only a few glaciers have long-term data. This study aims to reconstruct the mass balance of the Silvretta Glacier in the Swiss Alps using stable isotopes and tree ring proxies. Results indicate increased glacier mass until the 19th century, followed by a sharp decline after the Little Ice Age with accelerated losses due to anthropogenic warming.
Rudolf Brázdil, Jan Lhoták, Kateřina Chromá, and Petr Dobrovolný
Clim. Past, 20, 1017–1037, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1017-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1017-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The newly developed series of wheat, rye, barley, and oats prices from Sušice (southwestern Bohemia) for the period 1725–1824 CE is used to demonstrate effects of weather, climate, socio-economic, and societal factors on their fluctuations, with particular attention paid to years with extremely high prices. Cold spring temperatures and wet conditions from winter to summer were reflected in very high grain prices.
Siying Chen, Yun Su, Xudong Chen, and Liang Emlyn Yang
Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2024-11, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2024-11, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for CP
Short summary
Short summary
This study used 1,802 drought and 1,977 famine records from historical documents to reconstruct the spatial-temporal progression of the Chongzhen Drought (1627–1644) in China and its impact on famine. The advances: reconstructing the annual spatial patterns and regional series of drought; demonstrating drought as the primary factor triggering famine, contributing 2/3; finding a continuity of 2–3 years in drought’s impacts on famine; identifying the transmission pathway of the drought's impacts.
Grażyna Liczbińska, Jörg Peter Vögele, and Marek Brabec
Clim. Past, 20, 137–150, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-137-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-137-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study examines the relationship between temperature and precipitation as explanatory variables for the probability of death due to waterborne and airborne diseases in historical urban space. The lagged effects of temperature and precipitation on waterborne and airborne diseases were significant, except for the smooth lagged average monthly temperature effect for the latter. There was also significant spatial heterogeneity in the prevalence of deaths due to waterborne and airborne diseases.
Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, Bo Christiansen, Jan Esper, Heli Huhtamaa, Lotta Leijonhufvud, Christian Pfister, Andrea Seim, Martin Karl Skoglund, and Peter Thejll
Clim. Past, 19, 2463–2491, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-2463-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-2463-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We study the climate signal in long harvest series from across Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. The climate–harvest yield relationship is found to be relatively weak but regionally consistent and similar in strength and sign to modern climate–harvest yield relationships. The strongest climate–harvest yield patterns are a significant summer soil moisture signal in Sweden, a winter temperature and precipitation signal in Switzerland, and spring temperature signals in Spain.
Yuri Brugnara, Chantal Hari, Lucas Pfister, Veronika Valler, and Stefan Brönnimann
Clim. Past, 18, 2357–2379, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2357-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2357-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We digitized dozens of weather journals containing temperature measurements from in and around Bern and Zurich. They cover over a century before the creation of a national weather service in Switzerland. With these data we could create daily temperature series for the two cities that span the last 265 years. We found that the pre-industrial climate on the Swiss Plateau was colder than suggested by previously available instrumental data sets and about 2.5 °C colder than the present-day climate.
Christian von Savigny, Anna Lange, Anne Hemkendreis, Christoph G. Hoffmann, and Alexei Rozanov
Clim. Past, 18, 2345–2356, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2345-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2345-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This study investigates the possibility of inferring information on aerosol optical depth from photographs of historic paintings. The idea – which has been applied in previous studies – is very interesting because it would provide an archive of the atmospheric aerosol loading covering many centuries. We show that twilight colours depend not only on the aerosol optical thickness, but also on several other parameters, making a quantitative estimate of aerosol optical depth very difficult.
Rudolf Brázdil, Petr Zahradník, Péter Szabó, Kateřina Chromá, Petr Dobrovolný, Lukáš Dolák, Miroslav Trnka, Jan Řehoř, and Silvie Suchánková
Clim. Past, 18, 2155–2180, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2155-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2155-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Bark beetle outbreaks are important disturbances to Norway spruce forests. Their meteorological and climatological triggers are analysed for the main oubreaks over the territory of the Czech Republic based on newly created series of such outbreaks, covering the 1781–2021 CE period. The paper demonstrates the shift from windstorms as the main meteorological triggers of past outbreaks to effects of high temperatures and droughts together with windstorms in past decades.
George C. D. Adamson, David J. Nash, and Stefan W. Grab
Clim. Past, 18, 1071–1081, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1071-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1071-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Descriptions of climate held in archives are a valuable source of past climate variability, but there is a large potential for error in assigning quantitative indices (e.g. −2, v. dry to +2, v. wet) to descriptive data. This is the first study to examine this uncertainty. We gave the same dataset to 71 postgraduate students and 6 professional scientists, findings that error can be minimized by taking an average of indices developed by eight postgraduates and only two professional climatologists.
Rudolf Brázdil, Petr Dobrovolný, Jiří Mikšovský, Petr Pišoft, Miroslav Trnka, Martin Možný, and Jan Balek
Clim. Past, 18, 935–959, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-935-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-935-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The paper deals with 520-year series (1501–2020 CE) of temperature, precipitation, and four drought indices reconstructed from documentary evidence and instrumental observations for the Czech Lands. Basic features of their fluctuations, long-term trends, and periodicities as well as attribution to changes in external forcings and climate variability modes are analysed. Representativeness of Czech reconstructions at European scale is evaluated. The paper shows extreme character of past decades.
Santiago Gorostiza, Maria Antònia Martí Escayol, and Mariano Barriendos
Clim. Past, 17, 913–927, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-913-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-913-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
How did cities respond to drought during the 17th century? This article studies the strategies followed by the city government of Barcelona during the severely dry period from 1620 to 1650. Beyond the efforts to expand urban water supply sources and to improve the maintenance of the system, the city government decided to compile knowledge about water infrastructure into a book and to restrict access to it. This management strategy aimed to increase the city's control over water.
LingYun Tang, Neil Macdonald, Heather Sangster, Richard Chiverrell, and Rachel Gaulton
Clim. Past, 16, 1917–1935, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1917-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1917-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
A historical drought series (since 1200 CE) for Shenyang, NE China, shows 20th century droughts comparable in magnitude to recent severe droughts. Drought resilience driven by early 20th century societal/cultural changes reduced loss of life compared with the 1887 and 1891 droughts. A longer temporal analysis from integrated precipitation and historical records shows an earlier onset to droughts. Regional standardised precipitation indices could provide early warnings for drought development.
Siying Chen, Yun Su, Xiuqi Fang, and Jia He
Clim. Past, 16, 1873–1887, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1873-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1873-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Private diaries are important sources of historical data for research on climate change. Through a case study of Yunshan Diary, authored by Bi Guo of the Yuan dynasty of China, this article demonstrates how to delve into climate information in ancient diaries, mainly including species distribution records, phenological records and daily weather descriptions. This article considers how to use these records to reconstruct climate change and extreme climatic events on various timescales.
Kathleen Pribyl
Clim. Past, 16, 1027–1041, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1027-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1027-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Droughts pose a climatic hazard that can have a profound impacts on past societies. Using documentary sources, this paper studies the occurrence and impacts of spring–summer droughts in pre-industrial England from 1200 to 1700. The impacts most relevant to human livelihood, including the agricultural and pastoral sectors of agrarian production, and public health are evaluated.
Sarir Ahmad, Liangjun Zhu, Sumaira Yasmeen, Yuandong Zhang, Zongshan Li, Sami Ullah, Shijie Han, and Xiaochun Wang
Clim. Past, 16, 783–798, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-783-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-783-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This study provides the opportunity to extend climatic records to preindustrial periods in northern Pakistan. The reconstructed March–August PDSIs for the past 424 years, going back to 1593 CE, enable scientists to know how these areas were prone to climatic extremes in the past. The instrumental data are limited in Pakistan; however, the Cedrus deodara tree that preserves physical characteristics of past climatic variabilities can provide insight into the trend of climatic changes.
Rajmund Przybylak, Piotr Oliński, Marcin Koprowski, Janusz Filipiak, Aleksandra Pospieszyńska, Waldemar Chorążyczewski, Radosław Puchałka, and Henryk Paweł Dąbrowski
Clim. Past, 16, 627–661, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-627-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-627-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The paper presents the main features of droughts in Poland in the period 996–2015 based on proxy data (documentary and dendrochronological) and instrumental measurements of precipitation. More than 100 droughts were found in documentary sources from the mid-15th century to the end of the 18th century with a maximum in the second halves of the 17th and, particularly, the 18th century. The long-term frequency of droughts in Poland has been stable for the last two or three centuries.
Ernesto Tejedor, Martín de Luis, Mariano Barriendos, José María Cuadrat, Jürg Luterbacher, and Miguel Ángel Saz
Clim. Past, 15, 1647–1664, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1647-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1647-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
We developed a new dataset of historical documents by compiling records (rogation ceremonies) from 13 cities in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula (IP). These records were transformed into quantitative continuous data to develop drought indices (DIs). We regionalized them by creating three DIs (Ebro Valle, Mediterranean, and Mountain), which cover the period from 1650 to 1899 CE. We identified extreme drought years and periods which help to understand climate variability in the IP.
Thomas Labbé, Christian Pfister, Stefan Brönnimann, Daniel Rousseau, Jörg Franke, and Benjamin Bois
Clim. Past, 15, 1485–1501, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1485-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1485-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper we present the longest grape harvest date (GHD) record reconstructed to date, i.e. Beaune (France, Burgundy) 1354–2018. Drawing on unedited archive material, the series is validated using the long Paris temperature series that goes back to 1658 and was used to assess April-to-July temperatures from 1354 to 2018. The distribution of extremely early GHD is uneven over the 664-year-long period of the series and mirrors the rapid global warming from 1988 to 2018.
Salvador Gil-Guirado, Juan José Gómez-Navarro, and Juan Pedro Montávez
Clim. Past, 15, 1303–1325, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1303-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1303-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The historical climatology has remarkable research potentialities. However, historical climatology has some methodological limitations. This study presents a new methodology (COST) that allows us to perform climate reconstructions with monthly resolution. The variability of the climatic series obtained are coherent with previous studies. The new proposed method is objective and is not affected by social changes, which allows us to perform studies in regions with different languages and cultures.
Rudolf Brázdil, Petr Dobrovolný, Miroslav Trnka, Ladislava Řezníčková, Lukáš Dolák, and Oldřich Kotyza
Clim. Past, 15, 1–24, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The paper analyses extreme droughts of the pre-instrumental period (1501–1803) over the territory of the recent Czech Republic. In total, 16 droughts were selected for spring, summer and autumn each and 14 droughts for summer half-year (Apr–Sep). They are characterized by very low values of drought indices, high temperatures, low precipitation and by the influence of high-pressure situations. Selected extreme droughts are described in more detail. Effect of droughts on grain prices are studied.
Rudolf Brázdil, Andrea Kiss, Jürg Luterbacher, David J. Nash, and Ladislava Řezníčková
Clim. Past, 14, 1915–1960, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1915-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1915-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
The paper presents a worldwide state of the art of droughts fluctuations based on documentary data. It gives an overview of achievements related to different kinds of documentary evidence with their examples and an overview of papers presenting long-term drought chronologies over the individual continents, analysis of the most outstanding drought events, the influence of external forcing and large-scale climate drivers, and human impacts and responses. It recommends future research directions.
Shanna Lyu, Zongshan Li, Yuandong Zhang, and Xiaochun Wang
Clim. Past, 12, 1879–1888, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1879-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1879-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents a 414-year growing season minimum temperature reconstruction based on Korean pine tree-ring series at Laobai Mountain, northeast China. It developed a more than 400-year climate record in this area for the first time. This reconstruction showed six cold periods, seven warm periods, and natural disaster records of extreme climate events.
Pierre Brigode, François Brissette, Antoine Nicault, Luc Perreault, Anna Kuentz, Thibault Mathevet, and Joël Gailhard
Clim. Past, 12, 1785–1804, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1785-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1785-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper, we apply a new hydro-climatic reconstruction method on the Caniapiscau Reservoir (Canada), compare the obtained streamflow time series against time series derived from dendrohydrology by other authors on the same catchment, and study the natural streamflow variability over the 1881–2011 period. This new reconstruction is based on a historical reanalysis of global geopotential height fields and aims to produce daily streamflow time series (using a rainfall–runoff model).
J. Zheng, Z. Hua, Y. Liu, and Z. Hao
Clim. Past, 11, 1553–1561, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1553-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1553-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper we reconstruct the annual temperature anomalies in South Central China from 1850 to 2008, using phenodates of plants, snowfall days, and five tree-ring width chronologies. It is found that rapid warming has occurred since the 1990s, with an abrupt change around 1997, leading to unprecedented variability in warming; a cold interval dominated the 1860s, 1890s, and 1950s; warm decades occurred around 1850, 1870, and 1960; and the warmest decades were the 1990s–2000s.
R. Brázdil, P. Dobrovolný, M. Trnka, O. Kotyza, L. Řezníčková, H. Valášek, P. Zahradníček, and P. Štěpánek
Clim. Past, 9, 1985–2002, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1985-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1985-2013, 2013
Q. Ge, Z. Hao, J. Zheng, and X. Shao
Clim. Past, 9, 1153–1160, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1153-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1153-2013, 2013
H.-J. Lüdecke, A. Hempelmann, and C. O. Weiss
Clim. Past, 9, 447–452, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-447-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-447-2013, 2013
V. Daux, I. Garcia de Cortazar-Atauri, P. Yiou, I. Chuine, E. Garnier, E. Le Roy Ladurie, O. Mestre, and J. Tardaguila
Clim. Past, 8, 1403–1418, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-1403-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-1403-2012, 2012
Z.-X. Hao, J.-Y. Zheng, Q.-S. Ge, and W.-C. Wang
Clim. Past, 8, 1023–1030, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-1023-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-1023-2012, 2012
F. Domínguez-Castro, P. Ribera, R. García-Herrera, J. M. Vaquero, M. Barriendos, J. M. Cuadrat, and J. M. Moreno
Clim. Past, 8, 705–722, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-705-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-705-2012, 2012
P. Yiou, I. García de Cortázar-Atauri, I. Chuine, V. Daux, E. Garnier, N. Viovy, C. van Leeuwen, A. K. Parker, and J.-M. Boursiquot
Clim. Past, 8, 577–588, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-577-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-577-2012, 2012
R. Brázdil, K. Chromá, H. Valášek, and L. Dolák
Clim. Past, 8, 467–481, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-467-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-467-2012, 2012
F. Domínguez-Castro, R. García-Herrera, P. Ribera, and M. Barriendos
Clim. Past, 6, 553–563, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-6-553-2010, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-6-553-2010, 2010
Cited articles
Bachmair, S., Svensson, C., Hannaford, J., Barker, L. J., and Stahl, K.: A quantitative analysis to objectively appraise drought indicators and model drought impacts, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2589–2609, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2589-2016, 2016.
Badische Neueste Nachrichten (BNN): 53 Tropentage im Sommer 1947: Seit 100
Jahren kein Sommer so heiß und trocken wie 1947, Edition from
4 October 1947,
available at: https://digital.blb-karlsruhe.de/blbz/periodical/pageview/4707190 (last access:
8 April 2019), 1947.
Badische Neueste Nachrichten (BNN): Absinken der Grundwasserstände.
Teilweise wurden die Tiefstände des Dürresommers 1947
übertroffen, Edition from 19 September 1949,
available at: https://digital.blb-karlsruhe.de/blbz/periodical/zoom/4711580 (last access: 8 April 2019), 1949.
Barriendos, M., Ruiz-Bellet, J. L., Tuset, J., Mazón, J., Balasch, J. C., Pino, D., and Ayala, J. L.: The ”“Prediflood” database of historical floods in Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula) AD 1035–2013, and its potential applications in flood analysis, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 4807–4823, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-4807-2014, 2014.
Benestad, R. E.: How often can we expect a record event?, Clim. Res.,
25, 3–13, 2003.
Bernhofer, C., Hänsel, S., Schaller, A., and Pluntke, T.:
Charakterisierung von meteorologischer Trockenheit, in: Landesamt für
Umwelt, Landwirtschaft und Geologie (LfULG)-Schriftenreihe 7, 2015.
Blauhut, V., Gudmundsson, L., and Stahl, K.: Towards pan-European drought
risk maps. Quantifying the link between drought indices and reported drought
impacts, Environ. Res. Lett., 10, 14008, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/1/014008, 2015.
Blauhut, V., Stahl, K., Stagge, J. H., Tallaksen, L. M., De Stefano, L., and Vogt, J.: Estimating drought risk across Europe from reported drought impacts, drought indices, and vulnerability factors, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2779–2800, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2779-2016, 2016.
Brázdil, R., Pfister, C., Wanner, H., von Storch, H., and Luterbacher,
J.: Historical climatology in Europe – the state of the art, Clim. Change,
70, 363–430, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-005-5924-1, 2005.
Brázdil, R., Dobrovolný, P., Trnka, M., Kotyza, O., Řezníčková, L., Valášek, H., Zahradníček, P., and Štěpánek, P.: Droughts in the Czech Lands, 1090–2012 AD, Clim. Past, 9, 1985–2002, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1985-2013, 2013.
Brázdil, R., Raška, P., Trnka, M., Zahradníček, P.,
Valášek, H., Dobrovolný, P., Řezníčková, L.,
Treml, P., and Stachoň, Z.: The Central European drought of 1947: causes
and consequences, with particular reference to the Czech Lands, Clim. Res.,
70, 161–178, https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01387, 2016.
Brázdil, R., Kiss, A., Luterbacher, J., Nash, D. J., and Řezníčková, L.: Documentary data and the study of past droughts: a global state of the art, Clim. Past, 14, 1915–1960, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1915-2018, 2018.
Brázdil, R., Demarée, G. R., Kiss, A., Dobrovolný, P., Chromá, K., Trnka, M., Dolák, L., Řezníčková, L., Zahradníček, P., Limanowka, D., and Jourdain, S.: The extreme drought of 1842 in Europe as described by both documentary data and instrumental measurements, Clim. Past, 15, 1861–1884, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1861-2019, 2019.
Briffa, K. R., Jones, P. D., and Hulme, M.: Summer moisture variability across
Europe, 1892–1991: An analysis based on the Palmer drought severity index,
Int. J. Climatol., 14, 475–506, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3370140502, 1994.
Briffa, K. R., van der Schrier, G., and Jones, P. D.: Wet and dry summers in
Europe since 1750: evidence of increasing drought, Int. J. Climatol., 29,
1894–1905, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.1836, 2009.
Brodie, F. J.: The great drought of 1893, and its attendant meteorological
phenomena, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 20, 1–30,
https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.4970208901, 1894.
Brooks, C. E. P. and Glasspoole, J.: The drought of 1921, Q. J.
Roy. Meteor. Soc., 48, 139–168, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.49704820205, 1922.
Büntgen, U., Trouet, V., Frank, D., Leuschner, H. H., Friedrichs, D.,
Luterbacher, J., and Esper, J.: Tree-ring indicators of German summer
drought over the last millennium, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 29, 1005–1016,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.01.003, 2010.
Büntgen, U., Brázdil, R., Heussner, K.-U., Hofmann, J., Kontic, R.,
Kyncl, T., Pfister, C., Chromá, K., and Tegel, W.: Combined
dendro-documentary evidence of Central European hydroclimatic springtime
extremes over the last millennium, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 30, 3947–3959,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.10.010, 2011.
Camenisch, C. and Rohr, C.: When the weather turned bad. The research of
climate impacts on society and economy during the Little Ice Age in Europe.
An overview, Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica,
44, 99–114, https://doi.org/10.18172/cig.3395, 2018.
Camenisch, C., Keller, K. M., Salvisberg, M., Amann, B., Bauch, M., Blumer, S., Brázdil, R., Brönnimann, S., Büntgen, U., Campbell, B. M. S., Fernández-Donado, L., Fleitmann, D., Glaser, R., González-Rouco, F., Grosjean, M., Hoffmann, R. C., Huhtamaa, H., Joos, F., Kiss, A., Kotyza, O., Lehner, F., Luterbacher, J., Maughan, N., Neukom, R., Novy, T., Pribyl, K., Raible, C. C., Riemann, D., Schuh, M., Slavin, P., Werner, J. P., and Wetter, O.: 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, Clim. Past, 12, 2107–2126, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-2107-2016, 2016.
Cook, E. R., Seager, R., Kushnir, Y., Briffa, K. R., Büntgen, U., Frank,
D., Krusic, P. J., Tegel, W., van der Schrier, G., Andreu-Heyles, L.,
Bailie, M., Baittinger, C., Bleicher, N., Bonde, N., Brown, D., Carrer, M.,
Cooper, R., Čufar, K., Dittmar, C., Esper, J., Griggs, C., Gunnarson,
B., Günther, B., Gutierrez, E., Haneca, K., Helama, S., Herzig, F.,
Heussner, K.-U., Hofmann, J., Janda, P., Kontic, R., Köse, N., Kyncl,
T., Levanič, T., Linderholm, H., Manning, S., Melvin, T. M., Miles, D.,
Neuwirth, B., Nicolussi, K., Nola, P., Panayotov, M., Popa, I., Rothe, A.,
Seftigen, K., Seim, A., Svarva, H., Svoboda, M., Thun, T., Timonen, M.,
Touchan, R., Trotsiuk, V., Trouet, V., Walder, F., Ważny, T., Wilson,
R., and Zang, C.: Old World megadroughts and pluvials during the Common Era,
Sci. Adv., 1, e150061, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500561,
2015.
DWD (Deutscher Wetterdienst in der US-Zone): Bericht der Alliierten.
Zusammenfassende Übersicht der Dürreschäden im Sommer 1947, Bad
Kissingen, 1947.
DWD (Deutscher Wetterdienst): Standardized Precipitation Index
SPI, available at: https://www.dwd.de/DE/fachnutzer/landwirtschaft/dokumentationen/allgemein/spierlaeuterungen.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=1 (last access: 4 February 2019),
2018.
DWD: Das Hitzewarnsystem des Deutschen Wetterdienstes und seine Relevanz
für die menschliche Gesundheit, available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311262480_Das_Hitzewarnsystem_des_Deutschen_Wetterdienstes_DWD_und_seine_Relevanz_fur_die_menschliche_Gesundheit,
last access: 14 August 2019a.
DWD: Climate Data Center, available at: https://opendata.dwd.de/climate_environment/CDC/regional_averages_DE/monthly/precipitation/ (last access: 7 January 2020), 2019b.
Dobrovolný, P., Brázdil, R., Trnka, M., Kotyza, O., and
Valášek, H.: Precipitation reconstruction for the Czech Lands,
AD 1501–2010, Int. J. Climatol., 35, 1–14,
https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3957, 2015.
Dobrovolný, P., Brázdil, R., Trnka, M., Rybníček, M., Kolář, T., Možný, M., Kyncl, T., and Büntgen, U.: A 500-year multi-proxy drought reconstruction for the Czech Lands, Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2018-160, 2018.
Doornkamp, J. C., Gregory, K. J., and Burn, A. S. (Eds.): Atlas of Drought in
Britain 1975–76, London, 82 pp., 1980.
Dürr, F.: Chronik der Stadt Heilbronn, 741–1895, Unchanged reprint of
the 2nd edition of 1926, Stadtarchiv, Heilbronn, 1986.
Erfurt, M., Glaser, R., and Blauhut, V.: Changing impacts and societal responses
to drought in southwestern Germany since 1800, Reg. Environ. Change, 19, 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-019-01522-7, 2019.
Freiburger Zeitung: Freiburg 1784–1943, Edition from 20 July 1834, available at:
https://fz.ub.uni-freiburg.de/show/fz.cgi?cmd=showpic&ausgabe=01&day=20&year=1834&month=07&project=3&anzahl=4 (last access: 8 April 2019), 1834.
García-Herrera, R., Können, G. P., Wheeler, D. A., Prieto, M. R., Jones, P. D., and Koek, F. B.: CLIWOC: a climatological database for the World's oceans 1750–1854, Climatic Change, 73, 1–12, 2005.
Glaser R: Klimarekonstruktion für Mainfranken, Bauland und Odenwald
anhand direkter und indirekter Witterungsdaten seit 1500, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Paläoklimaforschung, No. 5, 175 pp.,
1991 (in German).
Glaser, R: Data and Methods of Climatological Evaluation in Historical
Climatology, Hist. Soc. Res., 21, 56–88, 1996.
Glaser, R.: Klimageschichte Mitteleuropas. 1200 Jahre Wetter, Klima,
Katastrophen, 3rd edn., Primus, Darmstadt, 2013.
Glaser, R. and Gudd, M.: Aussagepotentiale historischer
Witterungstagebücher – Das Jahr 1700 im Spiegel der Aufzeichnungen von
Friedrich Hoffmann aus Halle – Erdkunde 50/4, University of Bonn, 328–340, 1996.
Glaser, R. and Kahle, M.: Monthly Temperature and Hygric Indices for Central
Europe since AD 1500, Freidok, 193, https://doi.org/10.6094/tambora.org/2019/c493/csv.zip,
2019.
Glaser, R. and Riemann, D.: A thousand-year record of temperature variations for Germany and Central Europe based on documentary data, J. Quaternary Sci., 24, 437–449, 2009.
Glaser, R., Kahle, M., and Hologa, R.: The tambora.org data series edition,
Freidok, 1, 1–6, https://doi.org/10.6094/tambora.org/2016/seriesnotes.pdf,
2016.
Glaser, R., Himmelsbach, I., and Bösmeier, A.: Climate of migration? How climate triggered migration from southwest Germany to North America during the 19th century, Clim. Past, 13, 1573–1592, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1573-2017, 2017.
Glaser, R., Riemann, D., Vogt, S., and Himmelsbach, I.: Long- and Short-Term
Central European Climate Development in the Context of Vulnerability, Food
Security, and Emigration, edited by: Leggewie, C. and Mauelshagen, F., Climate Change and
Cultural Transition in Europe, Clim. Cult., 4, 85–118, 2018.
Gil-Guirado, S., Espín-Sánchez, J.-A., and Prieto, M. R.: Can we
learn from the past? Four hundred years of changes in adaption to floods and
droughts. Measuring the vulnerability in two Hispanic cities, Clim. Change,
139, 183–200, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1768-0, 2016.
Gudmundsson, L. and Stagge, J. H.: SCI: Standardized Climate Indices
such as SPI, SRI or SPEIR package version 1.0-2, 216.
Hémon, D., Jougla, E., and Clavel, J. : Surmortalité liée à
la canicule d'août 2003 en France, in: Institut de veille sanitaire, Bulletin épidémiologique hebdomadaire. Impact sanitaire de
la vague de chaleur d'août 2003 premiers résultats des travaux à
mener, 45–46, 212–225, 2003.
Kahle, M. and Glaser R.: climdata/drought2019: Reconstructions of Droughts in Germany since 1500,
Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3405167, 2019a.
Kahle, M. and Glaser R.: Droughts in Germany 1500–2019 – Drought and Wetness showing Precipitation Index (PI), TIB AV-Portal, https://doi.org/10.5446/45191, 2019b.
Kahle, M. and Glaser R.: Droughts in Germany 1500–2019 – Drought Periods showing Precipitation Index (PI), TIB AV-Portal,
https://doi.org/10.5446/45189, 2019c.
Kiermayr-Bühn, S.: Leben mit dem Wetter. Klima, Alltag und Katastrophe
in Süddeutschland seit 1600, WBG, 158 pp., 2009.
Kiss, A.: Droughts and low water levels in late Medieval Hungary II: 1361,
1439, 1443–4, 1455, 1473, 1480, 1482(?), 1502–3, 1506: Documentary versus
tree-ring (OWDA) evidence, J. Environ. Geogr., 10, 43–56,
https://doi.org/10.1515/jengeo-2017-0012, 2017.
Klemm, F.: Über die meteorologischen Beobachtungen des Abtes
Leonhard III. Treuttwein im Zisterzienserkloster Fürstenfeld von
1587–1593, Meteorol. Rundsch., 17, 139–143, 1964.
Klemm, F.: Über die meteorologischen Beobachtungen des Priors
Kilian Leib im Augustinerchorherrenstift Rebdorf in der Zeit vom 22.4.1513–31.12.1531, Meteorol. Rundsch., 20, 72–77, 1967.
Koppe, C. and Jendritzky, G.: Die Auswirkungen von thermischen Belastungen
auf die Mortalität, in: Warnsignal Klima: Gefahren für Pflanzen, Tiere und Menschen, edited by: Lozán, J. L., Grassl, H., Karbe, L., and Jendritzky, G., 2nd
edn., available at:
http://www.klima-warnsignale.uni-hamburg.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/koppe_jendritzky.pdf, (last
access: 13 December 2018), 2014.
Lenke, W.: Klimadaten von 1621–1650 nach Beobachtungen des
Landgrafen Hermann IV. von Hessen, Ber. d. Dt. Wetterd, Nr. 63, 3–51, 1960.
Lowe, E.: The Drought and Heat of 1893, Nature, 48, 437,
https://doi.org/10.1038/048437a0, 1893.
Matzarakis, A.: Das Hitzewarnsystem des Deutschen Wetterdienstes (DWD) und
seine Relevanz für die menschliche Gesundheit – Umweltmeteorologie,
Gefahrstoffe – Reinhaltung der Luft, DWD, 76, 457–460, 2016.
McKee, T. B., Doesken, N. J., and Kleist, J.: The relationship of drought
frequency and duration to time steps, in: Preprints, 8th Conference on
Applied Climatology, 17–22 January 1993, Anaheim, CA, USA, 179–184, 1993.
Mikšovský, J., Brázdil, R., Trnka, M., and Pišoft, P.: Long-term variability of drought indices in the Czech Lands and effects of external forcings and large-scale climate variability modes, Clim. Past, 15, 827–847, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-827-2019, 2019.
Nash, D. J. and Grab, S. W.: A sky of brass and burning winds,
Documentary evidence of rainfall variability in the kingdom of Lesotho,
southern Africa, 1824–1900, Clim. Change, 101, 617–653, 2010.
Nash, D. J., Klein, J., Endfield, G. H., Pribyl, K., Adamson, G. C. D., and
Grab, S. W.: Narratives of nineteenth century drought in southern Africa in
different historical source types, Clim. Change, 6, 467–485, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2352-6, 2019.
National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC): U.S. Drought Monitor,
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA, available at:
https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/About/AbouttheData/DroughtClassification.aspx, last access: 7 July 2020.
Nees, G. and Kehrer, H.: Alzenauer Wetterchronik. Die interessantesten
Wetterereignisse in Alzenau, im Kahlgrund und am Untermain von 265 bis 1999,
Keim, Weil der Stadt, 2002.
Noone, S., Broderick, C., Duffy, C., Matthews, T., Wilby, R. L., and Murphy,
C.: A 250-year drought catalogue for the island of Ireland (1765–2015),
Int. J. Climatol., 37, 239–254,
https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4999, 2017.
Palmer, W. C.: Meteorological Drought, Office of Climatology Research Paper
45, U.S. Weather Bureau, Washington, USA, 1965.
Pfister, C.: Wetternachhersage, 500 Jahre Klimavariationen und
Naturkatastrophen (1496–1995), Paul Haupt, Bern, Stuttgart, Wien, 1999.
Pfister, C., Weingartner, R., and Luterbacher, J.: Hydrological winter
droughts over the last 450 years in the upper rhine basin: A methodological
approach, Hydrol. Sci. Spec. Issue Hist. Hydrol., 51, 966–985, 2006.
Poumadère, M., Mays, C., Le Mer, S., and Blong, R.: The 2003 heat wave in
France: dangerous climate change here and now, Risk. Anal., 25, 1483–1494, 2005.
Riemann, D., Glaser, R., Kahle, M., and Vogt, S.: The CRE tambora.org – new
data and tools for collaborative research in climate and environmental
history, Geosci. Data J., 2, 63–77,
https://doi.org/10.1002/gdj3.30, 2015.
Sheffield, J., Wood, E. F., and Roderick, M. L.: Little change in global
drought over the past 60 years, Nature, 491, 435–438, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11575, 2012.
Spinoni, J., Naumann, G., Vogt, J., and Barbosa, P.: European drought
climatologies and trends based on a multi-indicator approach, Global Planet.
Change, 127, 50–57, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2015.01.012, 2015.
Stagge, J. H., Rizzi, J., Tallaksen, L. M., and Stahl, K.: Future
meteorological drought: Projections of regional climate models for Europe,
DROUGHT-R&SPI Technical Report No. 25, 2015a.
Stagge, J. H., Tallaksen, L. M., Gudmundsson, L., van Loon, A., and Stahl, K.:
Candidate Distributions for Climatological Drought Indices (SPI and SPEI),
2015, Int. J. Climatol., 35, 4027–4040,
https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4267, 2015b.
Stagge, J. H., Tallaksen, L. M., Gudmundsson, L., van Loon, A., and Stahl, K.:
Response to comment on “Candidate Distributions for Climatological Drought
Indices (SPI and SPEI)”, Int. J. Climatol., 36,
2132–2138, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4564, 2016.
Stahl, K., Kohn, I., Blauhut, V., Urquijo, J., De Stefano, L., Acácio, V., Dias, S., Stagge, J. H., Tallaksen, L. M., Kampragou, E., Van Loon, A. F., Barker, L. J., Melsen, L. A., Bifulco, C., Musolino, D., de Carli, A., Massarutto, A., Assimacopoulos, D., and Van Lanen, H. A. J.: Impacts of European drought events: insights from an international database of text-based reports, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 801–819, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-801-2016, 2016.
Svoboda, M., Hayes, M., and Wood, D.: Standardized Precipitation index, User
guide, World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, 2012.
tambora.org: About tambora.org, available at:
https://www.tambora.org/index.php/site/page?view=about, last acces:
28 January 2018.
Van Dijk, A. I. J. M., Beck, H. E., Crosbie, R. S., Jeu, R. A. M. de, Liu, Y. Y.,
Podger, G. M., Timbal, B., and Viney, N. R.: The Millennium Drought in southeast
Australia (2001–2009): Natural and human causes and implications for water
resources, ecosystems, economy, and society, Water Resour. Res.,
49, 1040–1057, https://doi.org/10.1002/wrcr.20123, 2013.
Vicente-Serrano, S. M., Beguería, S., and López-Moreno, J. I.: A Multiscalar Drought Index Sensitive to Global Warming: The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, J. Climate, 23, 1696–1718, https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JCLI2909.1, 2010.
Wang, P. K., Lin, K.-H. E., Liao, Y. C., Liao, H. M., Lin, Y. S., Hsu, C. T., Hsu,
S. M., Wan, C. W., Lee, S. Y., Fan, I. C., Tan, P. H., and Ting, T. T.:
Construction of the REACHES 21 climate database based on historical
documents of China, Sci. Data, 5, 180288,
https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.288, 2018.
Wetter, O., Pfister, C., Werner, J. P., Zorita, E., Wagner, S., Seneviratne,
S. I., Herget, J., Grünewald, U., Luterbacher, J., Alcoforado, M.-J.,
Barriendos, M., Bieber, U., Brázdil, R., Burmeister, K. H., Camenisch,
C., Contino, A., Dobrovolný, P., Glaser, R., Himmelsbach, I., Kiss, A.,
Kotyza, O., Labbé, T., Limanówka, D., Litzenburger, L., Nordli,
Ø., Pribyl, K., Retsö, D., Riemann, D., Rohr, C., Siegfried, W.,
Söderberg, J., and Spring, J.-L.: The year-long unprecedented European
heat and drought of 1540 – a worst case, Clim. Change, 125, 349–363,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-014-1184-2, 2014.
Wilhite, D. A.: Drought as a Natural Hazard: Concepts and Definitions, in:
Drought, A global assessment, edited by: Wilhite, D. A., Routledge, London, 2000.
Woodruff, S. D., Worley, S. J., Lubker, S. J., Freeman, J. E., Berry, D. I., Brohan, P., Kent, E. C., Reynolds, R. W., Smith, S. R., and Wilkinson, C.: ICOADS Release 2.5: extensions and enhancements to the surface marine meteorological archive, Int. J. Climatol., 31, 951–967, 2011.
Zargar, A., Sadiq, R., Naser, B., and Khan, F. I.: A review of drought
indices, Environ. Rev., 19, 333–349, https://doi.org/10.1139/A11-013, 2011.
Zink, M., Samaniego, L., Kumar, R., Thober, S., Mai, J., Schäfer, D., and
Marx, A.: The German drought monitor, Environ. Res. Lett., 11, 074002, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074002, 2016.
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.
A new study on droughts in Germany since 1500 reveals the long-term trend of single extreme...
