Articles | Volume 22, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-25-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-25-2026
Research article
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09 Jan 2026
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 09 Jan 2026

Historical Droughts in British Colonial Belize (1771–1981)

Oriol Ambrogio Gali, Sarah E. Metcalfe, Elizabeth A. C. Rushton, Betsabé de la Barreda-Bautista, Georgina H. Endfield, Sofia Márdero, Franziska Schrodt, and Alec McLellan

Data sets

Data Sets/Model Codes, "Historical Droughts in British Colonial Belize (1771-1981)", Climate of the Past A. Gali, Oriol https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17717299

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Co-editor-in-chief
The present manuscript submitted by Gali et al. to Climate of the Past, 'Historical droughts in british Colonial Belize (1771-1981)', is a publication which has been subject to comprehensive research, and it is anticipated that it will appeal to scientists across a range of disciplines. The region in which the work is conducted is significantly under-represented in the current literature, and this paper constitutes an excellent contribution to both the scientific community and our regional understanding of climate.
Short summary
This work presents the first documentary-derived chronology of droughts in British colonial Belize (1771-1981), integrating archival sources with extended instrumental records. Results show exceptional droughts in the 1880s, 1920s, and 1943-1955. Comparison of extreme colonial droughts with Terminal Classic Period palaeoclimate records shows a similar magnitude of precipitation reduction (29-59%) and provides a context to assess future climate projections for the region.
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