Assessing the most severe subsistence crisis of the 18th century in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula: a climatological perspective

deCastro, Maite; González-Cao, José; deCastro, Nicolás G.; Taboada, Juan J.; Vaquero, José M.; Gómez-Gesteira, Moncho

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-593-2025

Articles | Volume 21, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-593-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-593-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 2

Research article

|

28 Feb 2025

Research article |

| 28 Feb 2025

Assessing the most severe subsistence crisis of the 18th century in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula: a climatological perspective

Maite deCastro, José González-Cao, Nicolás G. deCastro, Juan J. Taboada, José M. Vaquero, and Moncho Gómez-Gesteira

Data sets

An updated global atmospheric paleo-reanalysis covering the last 400 years (https://www.wdc-climate.de/ui/q?hierarchy_steps_ss=EKF400) Veronika Valler et al. https://doi.org/10.1002/gdj3.121

Short summary

Persistent rains in the eastern Atlantic during 1768–1769 caused the worst agricultural crisis in Galicia and northern Portugal. Using the EKF400v2 paleo-reanalysis dataset, it was found that the rainfall anomaly was positive in 11 out of 12 months. June 1768 saw the highest positive rain anomaly of the century; September 1768 saw the second-highest. The atmospheric synoptic patterns show negative anomalies in sea level pressure and 500 hPa. These patterns induce surface low-pressure systems.