Articles | Volume 20, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2645-2024
© Author(s) 2024. 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-20-2645-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
29 Nov 2024
Research article |
| 29 Nov 2024
| 29 Nov 2024
ClimeApp: data processing tool for monthly, global climate data from the ModE-RA palaeo-reanalysis, 1422 to 2008 CE
Institute of History, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Niklaus Emanuel Bartlome
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Institute of History, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Noémie Wellinger
Institute of History, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Jörg Franke
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Ralf Hand
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Stefan Brönnimann
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Heli Huhtamaa
Institute of History, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
Related authors
Richard Warren
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1228, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1228, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Climate of the Past (CP).
Short summary
Short summary
This study examines whether volcanic eruptions contributed to famine in China between 1440 and 1900. Combining historical records of climate, harvest failure, famine and other social phenomena, it finds that eruptions significantly increased the risk of drought and crop failure, raising the likelihood of food shortages. However, other factors such as El Niño and government relief shaped outcomes. The results show that while eruptions did not directly cause famine, they did make it more likely.
Richard Warren
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1228, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1228, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Climate of the Past (CP).
Short summary
Short summary
This study examines whether volcanic eruptions contributed to famine in China between 1440 and 1900. Combining historical records of climate, harvest failure, famine and other social phenomena, it finds that eruptions significantly increased the risk of drought and crop failure, raising the likelihood of food shortages. However, other factors such as El Niño and government relief shaped outcomes. The results show that while eruptions did not directly cause famine, they did make it more likely.
Christian Pfister, Stefan Brönnimann, Laurent Litzenburger, Peter Thejll, Andres Altwegg, Rudolf Brázdil, Andrea Kiss, Erich Landsteiner, Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, and Thomas Pliemon
Clim. Past, 22, 541–559, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-541-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-541-2026, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
Narrative historical records of wine production in Central Europe date back to 1200. A study of taxes paid to authorities in the French-Luxembourg Moselle region, Germany, and the Swiss Plateau over the last few centuries shows that wine yields provide indirect indications of summer temperatures when the impact of heavy frosts is taken into account. This enables climate reconstructions based on tree rings to be refined and confirmed. Occasionally, poor harvests gave rise to witch hunts.
Peter Stucki, Stefan Brönnimann, Noemi Imfeld, Lucas Pfister, Conall E. Ruth, Yannis V. Schmutz, Yuri Brugnara, Martin Wegmann, Rajmund Przybylak, and Janusz Filipiak
Clim. Past, 22, 517–540, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-517-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-517-2026, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
We test nine reconstructions of Europe’s hot summer of 1807, using weather records, reanalyses, machine-learning (ML), and data assimilation. Most approaches match observed temperature and pressure well. Approaches based on physics of atmospheric flow capture weather patterns well, while ML approaches better reflect station records. Ingestion of accurate records from new regions improves the reconstructions markedly. In all, the approaches provide new insights to pre-industrial extreme weather.
Peter W. Thorne, John M. Nicklas, John J. Kennedy, Bruce Calvert, Baylor Fox-Kemper, Mark T. Richardson, Adrian Simmons, Ed Hawkins, Robert Rhode, Kathryn Cowtan, Nerilie J. Abram, Axel Andersson, Simon Noone, Phillipe Marbaix, Nathan Lenssen, Dirk Olonscheck, Tristram Walsh, Stephen Outten, Ingo Bethke, Bjorn H. Samset, Chris Smith, Anna Pirani, Jan Fuglestvedt, Lavanya Rajamani, Richard A. Betts, Elizabeth C. Kent, Blair Trewin, Colin Morice, Tim Osborn, Samantha N. Burgess, Oliver Geden, Andrew Parnell, Piers M. Forster, Chris Hewitt, Zeke Hausfather, Valerie Masson-Delmotte, Jochem Marotzke, Nathan Gillett, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Gavin A. Schmidt, Duo Chan, Stefan Brönnimann, Andy Reisinger, Matthew Menne, Maisa Rojas Corradi, Christopher Kadow, Peter Huybers, David B. Stephenson, Emily Wallis, Joeri Rogelj, Andrew Schurer, Karen McKinnon, Panmao Zhai, Fatima Driouech, Wilfran Moufouma Okia, Saeed Vazifehkhah, Sophie Szopa, Christopher J. Merchant, Shoji Hirahara, Masayoshi Ishii, Francois A. Engelbrecht, Qingxiang Li, June-Yi Lee, Alex J. Cannon, Christophe Cassou, Karina von Schuckmann, Amir H. Delju, and Ellie Murtagh
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-825, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-825, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
We reassess the basis for determining the present level of long-term global warming. Unbiased estimates of both realised warming and anthropogenic warming are possible that approximate a 20-year retrospective mean. Our resulting estimates of 1.40 [1.23–1.58] °C (realised) and 1.34 [1.18–1.50] °C (anthropogenic) as at end of 2024 highlight the urgency of immediate, far-reaching and sustained climate mitigation actions if we are to meet the long term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement.
Siyu Chen and Stefan Brönnimann
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5326, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5326, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Climate of the Past (CP).
Short summary
Short summary
This study applies a Bayesian framework to reconstruct winter temperatures in southwestern China from 1700–1949 using documentary records and paleo-simulations. The reconstruction identifies major cold and warm winters, captures long-term climatic phases, and demonstrates how Bayesian methods integrate historical evidence with simulation priors to produce regional climate reconstructions from a perspective of probability.
Nicolás Duque-Gardeazabal, Andrew R. Friedman, and Stefan Brönnimann
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 3277–3295, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-3277-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-3277-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Understanding hydrological variability is essential for ecological conservation and sustainable development. Evapotranspiration influences the carbon cycle, and finding what causes its variability is important for ecosystems. This study shows that ENSO (El Niño–Southern Oscillation) influences not only South America’s rainfall, soil moisture, radiation, and evaporation but also other phenomena in the Atlantic Ocean. The impacts change regionally depending on the season analysed and have implications for heat extremes.
Noemi Imfeld and Stefan Brönnimann
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-249, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-249, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
We extend Swiss daily climate reconstructions from 1763 to 2020 to six additional variables at 1×1 km resolution using analogue resampling and data assimilation. Wind and temperature reconstructions show reasonable skill, while humidity and sunshine duration perform less well. Application to historical wild fire events demonstrates the data set’s potential for impact studies. This is the first Swiss data set providing several variables at a high-resolution of 1x1 km and going back to 1763.
Lucas Pfister, Lena Wilhelm, Yuri Brugnara, Noemi Imfeld, and Stefan Brönnimann
Weather Clim. Dynam., 6, 571–594, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-571-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-571-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Our work compares different machine learning approaches for creating long-term classifications of daily atmospheric circulation patterns using input data from surface meteorological observations. Our comparison reveals that a feedforward neural network performs best at this task. Using this model, we present a daily reconstruction of a commonly used weather type classification for central Europe that dates back to 1728.
Rudolf Brázdil, Jan Lhoták, Kateřina Chromá, Dominik Collet, Petr Dobrovolný, and Heli Huhtamaa
Clim. Past, 21, 547–570, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-547-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-547-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Public granaries served as key infrastructure to improve food security in agrarian societies. Granary data from 15 domains at the Sušice region (southwestern Bohemia) in the period 1789–1849 CE are used here to identify years with bad and good grain harvests, which have been further analysed using documentary data and climatic reconstructions. The data used represent a new source of proxy data for historical–climatological research.
Peter Stucki, Lucas Pfister, Yuri Brugnara, Renate Varga, Chantal Hari, and Stefan Brönnimann
Clim. Past, 20, 2327–2348, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2327-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2327-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
In our work, we reconstruct the weather of the extremely cold and wet summer in 1816 using a weather forecasting model to obtain high-resolution, three-dimensional weather simulations. We refine our simulations with surface pressure and temperature observations, representing a novel approach for this period. Our results show that this approach yields detailed and accurate weather reconstructions, opening the door to analyzing past weather events and their impacts in detail.
Stefan Brönnimann, Janusz Filipiak, Siyu Chen, and Lucas Pfister
Clim. Past, 20, 2219–2235, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2219-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2219-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The year 1740 was the coldest in central Europe since at least 1421. New monthly global climate reconstructions, together with daily weather reconstructions, allow a detailed view of this climatic event. Following several severe cold spells in January and February, a persistent circulation pattern with blocking over the British Isles caused northerly flow towards western Europe during a large part of the year. It was one of the strongest, arguably unforced excursions in European temperature.
Christian Pfister, Stefan Brönnimann, Andres Altwegg, Rudolf Brázdil, Laurent Litzenburger, Daniele Lorusso, and Thomas Pliemon
Clim. Past, 20, 1387–1399, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1387-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1387-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This bottle of Riesling from the traditional Bassermann Jordan winery in Deidesheim (Germany) is a relic of the premium wine harvested in 1811. It was named “Comet Wine” after the bright comet that year. The study shows that wine quality can be used to infer summer weather conditions over the past 600 years. After rainy summers with cold winds, wines turned sour, while long periods of high pressure led to excellent qualities. Since 1990, only good wines have been produced due to rapid warming.
Stefan Brönnimann, Yuri Brugnara, and Clive Wilkinson
Clim. Past, 20, 757–767, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-757-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-757-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The early 20th century warming – the first phase of global warming in the 20th century – started from a peculiar cold state around 1910. We digitised additional ship logbooks for these years to study this specific climate state and found that it is real and likely an overlap of several climatic anomalies, including oceanic variability (La Niña) and volcanic eruptions.
Noemi Imfeld, Koen Hufkens, and Stefan Brönnimann
Clim. Past, 20, 659–682, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-659-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-659-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Climate and weather in spring are important because they can have far-reaching impacts, e.g. on plant growth, due to cold spells. Here, we study changes in climate and phenological indices for the period from 1763 to 2020 based on newly published reconstructed fields of daily temperature and precipitation for Switzerland. We look at three cases of extreme spring conditions, namely a warm spring in 1862, two frost events in 1873 and 1957, and three cold springs in 1785, 1837, and 1852.
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.
Eric Samakinwa, Christoph C. Raible, Ralf Hand, Andrew R. Friedman, and Stefan Brönnimann
Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2023-67, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2023-67, 2023
Publication in CP not foreseen
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, we nudged a stand-alone ocean model MPI-OM to proxy-reconstructed SST. Based on these model simulations, we introduce new estimates of the AMOC variations during the period 1450–1780 through a 10-member ensemble simulation with a novel nudging technique. Our approach reaffirms the known mechanisms of AMOC variability and also improves existing knowledge of the interplay between the AMOC and the NAO during the AMOC's weak and strong phases.
Ralf Hand, Eric Samakinwa, Laura Lipfert, and Stefan Brönnimann
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 4853–4866, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-4853-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-4853-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
ModE-Sim is an ensemble of simulations with an atmosphere model. It uses observed sea surface temperatures, sea ice conditions, and volcanic aerosols for 1420 to 2009 as model input while accounting for uncertainties in these conditions. This generates several representations of the possible climate given these preconditions. Such a setup can be useful to understand the mechanisms that contribute to climate variability. This paper describes the setup of ModE-Sim and evaluates its performance.
Stefan Brönnimann and Yuri Brugnara
Clim. Past, 19, 1435–1445, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1435-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1435-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We present the weather diaries of the Kirch family from 1677–1774 containing weather observations made in Leipzig and Guben and, from 1701 onward, instrumental observations made in Berlin. We publish the imaged diaries (10 445 images) and the digitized measurements (from 1720 onward). This is one of the oldest and longest meteorological records from Germany. The digitized pressure data show good agreement with neighbouring stations, highlighting their potential for weather reconstruction.
Stefan Brönnimann
Clim. Past, 19, 1345–1357, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1345-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1345-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Weather reconstructions could help us to better understand the mechanisms leading to, and the impacts caused by, climatic changes. This requires daily weather information such as diaries. Here I present the weather diary by Georg Christoph Eimmart from Nuremberg covering the period 1695–1704. This was a particularly cold period in Europe, and the diary helps to better characterize this climatic anomaly.
Noemi Imfeld, Lucas Pfister, Yuri Brugnara, and Stefan Brönnimann
Clim. Past, 19, 703–729, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-703-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-703-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Climate reconstructions give insights into monthly and seasonal climate variability of the past few hundred years. However, to understand past extreme weather events and to relate them to impacts, for example to periods of extreme floods, reconstructions on a daily timescale are needed. Here, we present a reconstruction of 258 years of high-resolution daily temperature and precipitation fields for Switzerland covering the period 1763 to 2020, which is based on instrumental measurements.
Moritz Buchmann, Gernot Resch, Michael Begert, Stefan Brönnimann, Barbara Chimani, Wolfgang Schöner, and Christoph Marty
The Cryosphere, 17, 653–671, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-653-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-653-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Our current knowledge of spatial and temporal snow depth trends is based almost exclusively on time series of non-homogenised observational data. However, like other long-term series from observations, they are susceptible to inhomogeneities that can affect the trends and even change the sign. To assess the relevance of homogenisation for daily snow depths, we investigated its impact on trends and changes in extreme values of snow indices between 1961 and 2021 in the Swiss observation network.
Jianquan Dong, Stefan Brönnimann, Tao Hu, Yanxu Liu, and Jian Peng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 5651–5664, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5651-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5651-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We produced a new dataset of global station-based daily maximum wet-bulb temperature (GSDM-WBT) through the calculation of wet-bulb temperature, data quality control, infilling missing values, and homogenization. The GSDM-WBT covers the complete daily series of 1834 stations from 1981 to 2020. The GSDM-WBT dataset handles stations with many missing values and possible inhomogeneities, which could better support the studies on global and regional humid heat events.
Jörg Franke, Michael N. Evans, Andrew Schurer, and Gabriele C. Hegerl
Clim. Past, 18, 2583–2597, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2583-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2583-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Detection and attribution is a statistical method to evaluate if external factors or random variability have caused climatic changes. We use for the first time a comparison of simulated and observed tree-ring width that circumvents many limitations of previous studies relying on climate reconstructions. We attribute variability in temperature-limited trees to strong volcanic eruptions and for the first time detect a spatial pattern in the growth of moisture-sensitive trees after eruptions.
Duncan Pappert, Mariano Barriendos, Yuri Brugnara, Noemi Imfeld, Sylvie Jourdain, Rajmund Przybylak, Christian Rohr, and Stefan Brönnimann
Clim. Past, 18, 2545–2565, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2545-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2545-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We present daily temperature and sea level pressure fields for Europe for the severe winter 1788/1789 based on historical meteorological measurements and an analogue reconstruction approach. The resulting reconstruction skilfully reproduces temperature and pressure variations over central and western Europe. We find intense blocking systems over northern Europe and several abrupt, strong cold air outbreaks, demonstrating that quantitative weather reconstruction of past extremes is possible.
Chantal Camenisch, Fernando Jaume-Santero, Sam White, Qing Pei, Ralf Hand, Christian Rohr, and Stefan Brönnimann
Clim. Past, 18, 2449–2462, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2449-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2449-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We present a novel approach to assimilate climate information contained in chronicles and annals from the 15th century to generate climate reconstructions of the Burgundian Low Countries, taking into account uncertainties associated with the descriptions of narrative sources. Our study aims to be a first step towards a more quantitative use of available information contained in historical texts, showing how Bayesian inference can help the climate community with this endeavor.
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.
Heli Huhtamaa, Markus Stoffel, and Christophe Corona
Clim. Past, 18, 2077–2092, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2077-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2077-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Tree-ring data and written sources from northern Fennoscandia reveal that large 17th century eruptions had considerable climatic, agricultural, and socioeconomic impacts far away from the eruption locations. Yet, micro-regional investigation shows that the human consequences were commonly indirect, as various factors, like agro-ecosystems, resource availability, institutions, and personal networks, dictated how the volcanic cold pulses and related crop failures materialized on a societal level.
Gilles Delaygue, Stefan Brönnimann, and Philip D. Jones
Weather Clim. Dynam. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2022-33, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2022-33, 2022
Revised manuscript not accepted
Short summary
Short summary
We test whether any association between solar activity and meteorological conditions in the north Atlantic – European sector could be detected. We find associations consistent with those found by previous studies, with a slightly better statistical significance, and with less methodological biases which have impaired previous studies. Our study should help strengthen the recognition of meteorological impacts of solar activity.
Moritz Buchmann, John Coll, Johannes Aschauer, Michael Begert, Stefan Brönnimann, Barbara Chimani, Gernot Resch, Wolfgang Schöner, and Christoph Marty
The Cryosphere, 16, 2147–2161, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2147-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2147-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Knowledge about inhomogeneities in a data set is important for any subsequent climatological analysis. We ran three well-established homogenization methods and compared the identified break points. By only treating breaks as valid when detected by at least two out of three methods, we enhanced the robustness of our results. We found 45 breaks within 42 of 184 investigated series; of these 70 % could be explained by events recorded in the station history.
Markus Stoffel, Christophe Corona, Francis Ludlow, Michael Sigl, Heli Huhtamaa, Emmanuel Garnier, Samuli Helama, Sébastien Guillet, Arlene Crampsie, Katrin Kleemann, Chantal Camenisch, Joseph McConnell, and Chaochao Gao
Clim. Past, 18, 1083–1108, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1083-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1083-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The mid-17th century saw several volcanic eruptions, deteriorating climate, political instability, and famine in Europe, China, and Japan. We analyze impacts of the eruptions on climate but also study their socio-political context. We show that an unambiguous distinction of volcanic cooling or wetting from natural climate variability is not straightforward. It also shows that political instability, poor harvest, and famine cannot only be attributed to volcanic climatic impacts.
Stefan Brönnimann, Peter Stucki, Jörg Franke, Veronika Valler, Yuri Brugnara, Ralf Hand, Laura C. Slivinski, Gilbert P. Compo, Prashant D. Sardeshmukh, Michel Lang, and Bettina Schaefli
Clim. Past, 18, 919–933, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-919-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-919-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Floods in Europe vary on time scales of several decades. Flood-rich and flood-poor periods alternate. Recently floods have again become more frequent. Long time series of peak stream flow, precipitation, and atmospheric variables reveal that until around 1980, these changes were mostly due to changes in atmospheric circulation. However, in recent decades the role of increasing atmospheric moisture due to climate warming has become more important and is now the main driver of flood changes.
Sam White, Eduardo Moreno-Chamarro, Davide Zanchettin, Heli Huhtamaa, Dagomar Degroot, Markus Stoffel, and Christophe Corona
Clim. Past, 18, 739–757, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-739-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-739-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This study examines whether the 1600 Huaynaputina volcano eruption triggered persistent cooling in the North Atlantic. It compares previous paleoclimate simulations with new climate reconstructions from natural proxies and historical documents and finds that the reconstructions are consistent with, but do not support, an eruption trigger for persistent cooling. The study also analyzes societal impacts of climatic change in ca. 1600 and the use of historical observations in model–data comparison.
Daniel Steinfeld, Adrian Peter, Olivia Martius, and Stefan Brönnimann
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-92, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-92, 2022
Preprint archived
Short summary
Short summary
We assess the performance of various fire weather indices to predict wildfire occurrence in Northern Switzerland. We find that indices responding readily to weather changes have the best performance during spring; in the summer and autumn seasons, indices that describe persistent hot and dry conditions perform best. We demonstrate that a logistic regression model trained on local historical fire activity can outperform existing fire weather indices.
Duncan Pappert, Yuri Brugnara, Sylvie Jourdain, Aleksandra Pospieszyńska, Rajmund Przybylak, Christian Rohr, and Stefan Brönnimann
Clim. Past, 17, 2361–2379, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2361-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2361-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents temperature and pressure measurements from the 37 stations of the late 18th century network of the Societas Meteorologica Palatina, in addition to providing an inventory of the available observations, most of which have been digitised. The quality of the recovered series is relatively good, as demonstrated by two case studies. Early instrumental data such as these will help to explore past climate and weather extremes in Europe in greater detail.
Moritz Buchmann, Michael Begert, Stefan Brönnimann, and Christoph Marty
The Cryosphere, 15, 4625–4636, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4625-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4625-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We investigated the impacts of local-scale variations by analysing snow climate indicators derived from parallel snow measurements. We found the largest relative inter-pair differences for all indicators in spring and the smallest in winter. The findings serve as an important basis for our understanding of uncertainties of commonly used snow indicators and provide, in combination with break-detection methods, the groundwork in view of any homogenization efforts regarding snow time series.
Claudia Timmreck, Matthew Toohey, Davide Zanchettin, Stefan Brönnimann, Elin Lundstad, and Rob Wilson
Clim. Past, 17, 1455–1482, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1455-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1455-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The 1809 eruption is one of the most recent unidentified volcanic eruptions with a global climate impact. We demonstrate that climate model simulations of the 1809 eruption show generally good agreement with many large-scale temperature reconstructions and early instrumental records for a range of radiative forcing estimates. In terms of explaining the spatially heterogeneous and temporally delayed Northern Hemisphere cooling suggested by tree-ring networks, the investigation remains open.
Noemi Imfeld, Leopold Haimberger, Alexander Sterin, Yuri Brugnara, and Stefan Brönnimann
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 2471–2485, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2471-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2471-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Upper-air data form the backbone of reanalysis products, particularly in the pre-satellite era. However, historical upper-air data are error-prone because measurements at high altitude were especially challenging. Here, we present a collection of data from historical intercomparisons of radiosondes and error assessments reaching back to the 1930s that may allow us to better characterize such errors. The full database, including digitized data, images, and metadata, is made publicly available.
Cited articles
Auchmann, R., Arfeuille, F., Wegmann, M., Franke, J., Barriendos, M., Prohom, M., Sanchez-Lorenzo, A., Bhend, J., Wild, M., Folini, D., Štěpánek, P., and Brönnimann, S.: Impact of volcanic stratospheric aerosols on diurnal temperature range in Europe over the past 200 years: Observations versus model simulations, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 118, 9064–9077, https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50759, 2013.
Bartlome, N. E., Warren, R., and Wellinger, N.: ClimeApp v1.0, Zenodo [code], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14175969, 2024.
Brönnimann, S.: Climatic Changes Since 1700, Advances in Global Change Research, 55, Springer, Cham, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19042-6, 2015.
Brönnimann, S.: Infopage for Course – Climatology III (Cimate variability and change), University of Bern, https://www.climatestudies.unibe.ch/courses/courseinfo/index_eng.html?id=54 (last access: 26 January 2024), 2024.
Brönnimann, S. and Krämer, D.: Tambora and the “Year Without a Summer” of 1816. A perspective on earth and human systems science, Geographica Bernensia, 90, 1–48, https://doi.org/10.4480/GB2016.G90.01, 2016.
Chang, W., Cheng, J., Allaire, J. J., Sievert, C., Schloerke, B., Xie, Y., Allen, J., McPherson, J., Dipert, A., and Borges, B.: shiny: Web Application Framework for R, CRAN [code], https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.shiny, 2024.
Degroot, D., Anchukaitis, K., Bauch, M., Burnham, J., Carnegy, F., Cui, J., de Luna, K., Guzowski, P., Hambrecht, G., Huhtamaa, H., Izdebski, A., Kleemann, K., Moesswilde, E., Neupane, N., Newfield, T., Pei, Q., Xoplaki, E., and Zappia, N.: Towards a rigorous understanding of societal responses to climate change, Nature, 591, 539–550, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03190-2, 2021.
de Sousa, J. A. N. P.: Exploratory Analysis of Meteorological Data, Mestrado Integrado, Department of Computer Science, University of Porto, https://hdl.handle.net/10216/126679, 2019.
Fajardo, J., Corcoran, D., Roehrdanz, P. R., Hannah, L., and Marquet, P. A.: GCM compareR: A web application to assess differences and assist in the selection of general circulation models for climate change research, Methods Ecol. Evol., 11, 656–663, https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13360, 2020.
Flückiger, S., Brönnimann, S., Holzkämpfer, A., Fuhrer, J., Krämer, D., Pfister, C., and Rohr, C.: Simulating crop yield losses in Switzerland for historical and present Tambora climate scenarios, Environ. Res. Lett., 12, 074026, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7246, 2017.
Gebauer, J. E., Adler, J., and DGKL working group “Digital Competence”: Using Shiny apps for statistical analyses and laboratory workflows, J. Lab. Med., 47, 149–153, https://doi.org/10.1515/labmed-2023-0020, 2023.
Haas-Zumbühl, F.: Die Kernenpreise und Brotpreise in Luzern von 1601 bis 1900: Beilage Nr. 16, Zeitschrift für schweizerische Statistik, 39, 369–374, https://www.sgvs.ch/papers/sjesBackIssues/1903_PDF/1903-I-III-1.pdf (last access: 17 September 2024), 1903.
Hand, R., Samakinwa, E., Lipfert, L., and Brönnimann, S.: ModE-Sim – a medium-sized atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) ensemble to study climate variability during the modern era (1420 to 2009), Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 4853–4866, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-4853-2023, 2023a.
Hand, R., Brönnimann, S., Samakinwa, E., and Lipfert, L.: ModE-Sim – A medium size AGCM ensemble to study climate variability during the modern era (1420 to 2009): Set 1420-1, WDCC [data set], https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/ModE-Sim_s14201, 2023b.
Hand, R., Brönnimann, S., Samakinwa, E., and Lipfert, L.: ModE-Sim – A medium size AGCM ensemble to study climate variability during the modern era (1420 to 2009): Set 1420-2, WDCC [data set], https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/ModE-Sim_s14202, 2023c.
Hand, R., Brönnimann, S., Samakinwa, E., and Lipfert, L.: ModE-Sim – A medium size AGCM ensemble to study climate variability during the modern era (1420 to 2009): Set 1420-3, WDCC [data set], https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/ModE-Sim_s14203, 2023d.
Hand, R., Brönnimann, S., Samakinwa, E., and Lipfert, L.: ModE-Sim – A medium size AGCM ensemble to study climate variability during the modern era (1420 to 2009): Set 1850-1, WDCC [data set], https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/ModE-Sim_s18501, 2023e.
Hand, R., Brönnimann, S., Samakinwa, E., and Lipfert, L.: ModE-Sim – A medium size AGCM ensemble to study climate variability during the modern era (1420 to 2009): Set 1850-2, WDCC [data set], https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/ModE-Sim_s18502, 2023f.
Huhtamaa, H.: Infopage for Course – Climate and Society in History, University of Bern, https://www.climatestudies.unibe.ch/courses/courseinfo/index_eng.html?id=166 (last access: 26 January 2024), 2024.
Huhtamaa, H. and Hibberts, A.: Young researchers explore climate histories, PAGES Mag., 32, 54, https://doi.org/10.22498/pages.32.1.54, 2024.
Kandlbauer, J. and Sparks, R. S. J.: New estimates of the 1815 Tambora eruption volume, J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res., 286, 93–100, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2014.08.020, 2014.
Krämer, D.: Menschen grasten nun mit dem Vieh: Die letzte grosse Hungerkrise der Schweiz 1816/17, Wirtschafts-, Sozial- und Umweltgeschichte, 4, Schwabe Verlag, https://doi.org/10.24894/978-3-7965-3447-8, 2015.
Lamb, H. H.: Climate, history and the modern world, Second Edition, Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203433652, 2002.
Ljungqvist, F. C., Thejll, P., Christiansen, B., Seim, A., Hartl, C., and Esper, J.: The significance of climate variability on early modern European grain prices, Cliometrica, 16, 29–77, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11698-021-00224-7, 2022.
Marti, J. and Ernst, G. G. J.: Volcanoes and the Environment, Cambridge University Press, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614767, 2009.
Möller, M., Boutarfa, L., and Strassemeyer, J.: PhenoWin-An R Shiny application for visualization and extraction of phenological windows in Germany, Comput. Electron. Agr., 175, 1–6, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2020.105534, 2020.
Pfister, C. and Wanner, H.: Climate and Society in Europe: The Last Thousand Years, Haupt Verlag, ISBN 978-3-258-08234-9, 2021.
Pfister, C., Rohr, C., and Jover, A.: Euro-Climhist: eine Datenplattform der Universität Bern zur Witterungs-, Klimaund Katastrophengeschicht, Wasser Energie Luft, 109, 45–48, https://doi.org/10.5169/seals-941608, 2017.
Posit Team: RStudio: Integrated Development Environment for R, Posit PBC, Boston, Massachusetts, http://www.rstudio.com/ (last access: 13 November 2024), 2024.
R Core Team: R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing, R Project, Vienna, Austria, https://www.R-project.org/ (last access: 13 November 2024), 2024.
Raible, C. C., Brönnimann, S., Auchmann, R., Brohan, P., Frölicher, T. L., Graf, H.-F., Jones, P., Luterbacher, J., Muthers, S., Neukom, R., Robock, A., Self, S., Sudrajat, A., Timmreck, C., and Wegmann, M.: Tambora 1815 as a test case for high impact volcanic eruptions: Earth system effects, WIREs Clim. Change, 7, 569–589, https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.407, 2016.
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.
Shapiro, S. S. and Wilk, M. B.: An analysis of variance test for normality (complete samples), Biometrika, 52, 591–611, https://doi.org/10.2307/2333709, 1965.
Stevens, B., Giorgetta, M., Esch, M., Mauritsen, T., Crueger, T., Rast, S., Salzmann, M., Schmidt, H., Bader, J., Block, K., Brokopf, R., Fast, I., Kinne, S., Kornblueh, L., Lohmann, U., Pincus, R., Reichler, T., and Roeckner, E.: Atmospheric component of the MPI-M earth system model: ECHAM6, J. Adv. Model. Earth Sy., 5, 146–172, https://doi.org/10.1002/jame.20015, 2013.
Tennekes, M.: tmaptools: Thematic Map Tools, CRAN [code], https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.tmaptools, 2021.
Toohey, M. and Sigl, M.: Volcanic stratospheric sulfur injections and aerosol optical depth from 500 BCE to 1900 CE, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 809–831, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-809-2017, 2017.
Trouet, V. and van Oldenborgh, G. J.: KNMI Climate Explorer: A Web-Based Research Tool for High-Resolution Paleoclimatology, Tree-Ring Res., 69, 3–13, https://doi.org/10.3959/1536-1098-69.1.3, 2013.
Valler, V., Franke, J., Brugnara, Y., Burgdorf, A.-M., Lundstad, E., Hand, R., Samakinwa, E., Lipfert, L., Friedman, A. R., and Brönnimann, S.: ModE-RA – A global monthly paleo-reanalysis of the modern era (1421 to 2008): Set 1420-3_1850-1, WDCC [data set], https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/ModE-RA_s14203-18501, 2023a.
Valler, V., Franke, J., Brugnara, Y., Burgdorf, A.-M., Lundstad, E., Hand, R., Samakinwa, E., Lipfert, L., Friedman, A. R., and Brönnimann, S.: ModE-RAclim – A version of the ModE-RA reanalysis with climatological prior for sensitivity studies: Set 1420-3_1850-1, WDCC [data set], https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/ModE-RAc_s14203-18501, 2023b.
Valler, V., Franke, J., Brugnara, Y., Samakinwa, E., Hand, R., Lundstad, E., Burgdorf, A.-M., Lipfert, L., Friedman, A. R., and Brönnimann, S.: ModE-RA: a global monthly paleo-reanalysis of the modern era 1421 to 2008, Sci. Data, 11, 1–19, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02733-8, 2024.
van Bree, P. and Kessels, G.: nodegoat: a web-based data management, network analysis & visualisation environment, LAB1100, https://nodegoat.net/ (last access: 26 January 2024), 2013.
Wegmann, M., Brönnimann, S., Bhend, J., Franke, J., Folini, D., Wild, M., and Luterbacher, J.: Volcanic Influence on European Summer Precipitation through Monsoons: Possible Cause for “Years without Summer”, J. Climate, 27, 3683–3691, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00524.1, 2014.
White, S., Pei, Q., Kleemann, K., Dolák, L., Huhtamaa, H., and Camenisch, C.: New perspectives on historical climatology, WIREs Clim. Change, 14, 1–17, https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.808, 2023.
Wood, G. D.: Tambora: The Eruption that Changed the World, Princeton University Press, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5vjv5c, 2014.
Short summary
This paper introduces the ClimeApp web application. The app provides quick access to the ModE-RA global climate reanalysis. Users can calculate and plot anomalies, composites, correlations, regressions and annual cycles across three different datasets and four climate variables. By re-examining the 1815 Tambora eruption, we demonstrate how combining results from different datasets and sources can help us investigate the historical palaeoclimate and integrate it into human history.
This paper introduces the ClimeApp web application. The app provides quick access to the ModE-RA...
