Central Europe, 1531–1540&thinsp;CE: The driest summer decade of the past five centuries?

Brázdil, Rudolf; Dobrovolný, Petr; Bauch, Martin; Camenisch, Chantal; Kiss, Andrea; Kotyza, Oldřich; Oliński, Piotr; Řezníčková, Ladislava

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2125-2020

Articles | Volume 16, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2125-2020

© 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-16-2125-2020

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

Articles | Volume 16, issue 6

Research article

|

09 Nov 2020

Research article |

| 09 Nov 2020

Central Europe, 1531–1540 CE: The driest summer decade of the past five centuries?

Rudolf Brázdil, Petr Dobrovolný, Martin Bauch, Chantal Camenisch, Andrea Kiss, Oldřich Kotyza, Piotr Oliński, and Ladislava Řezníčková

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2125-2020-supplement

Data sets

Pauling et al. 2006 European Gridded Seasonal Precipitation Reconstructions A. Pauling, J. Luterbacher, C. Casty, and H. Wanner https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo-search/study/6342

Luterbacher et al. 2002 Sea Level Pressure Reconstructions, N. Atlantic/Europe J. Luterbacher, E. Xoplaki, R. Rickli, D. Gyalistras, C. Schmutz, H. Wanner, D. Dietrich, J. Jacobeit, and C. Beck https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo-search/study/6366

Xoplaki 2005, Luterbacher 2004 European Seasonal Temperature Reconstructions J. Luterbacher, D. Dietrich, E. Xoplaki, M. Grosjean, H. Wanner, H. Paeth, and N. Steiner https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo-search/study/6288

Old World megadroughts and pluvials during the Common Era (http://drought.memphis.edu/OWDA/Default.aspx) E. R. Cook, R. Seager, Y. Kushnir, K. R. Briffa, U. Buntgen, D. Frank, P. J. Krusic, W. Tegel, G. van der Schrier, L. Andreu-Hayles, M. Baillie, C. Baittinger, N. Bleicher, N. Bonde, D. Brown, M. Carrer, R. Cooper, K. Cufar, C. Dittmar, J. Esper, C. Griggs, B. Gunnarson, B. Gunther, E. Gutierrez, K. Haneca, S. Helama, F. Herzig, K.-U. Heussner, J. Hofmann, P. Janda, R. Kontic, N. Kose, T. Kyncl, T. Levanic, H. Linderholm, S. Manning, T. M. Melvin, D. Miles, B. Neuwirth, K. Nicolussi, P. Nola, M. Panayotov, I. Popa, A. Rothe, K. Seftigen, A. Seim, H. Svarva, M. Svoboda, T. Thun, M. Timonen, R. Touchan, V. Trotsiuk, V. Trouet, F. Walder, T. Wazny, R. Wilson, and C. Zang https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500561

Short summary

Previous studies related to historical droughts in the Czech Lands showed that the summers of 1531–1540 could represent the driest summer decade of the past 500 years. To confirm this hypothesis, documentary data from central Europe were collected and presented for individual summers and complemented by maps of precipitation and drought distribution to document corresponding weather patterns and their various impacts. The main droughts occurred in 1532, 1534–1536, 1538, and particularly in 1540.