Climate Change and History; Uncertain Weather, Uncertain Times August 21, 2010
Posted by honestclimate in Discussions.Tags: climate change, Dr Tim ball, global warming
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Climate Change and History; Uncertain Weather, Uncertain Times
Dr Tim Ball
By Dr Tim Ball
CFP, August 19, 2010
Very few history books considered the impact of weather, before it became a political issue. One was Barbara Tuchman’s 1978 book “A Distant Mirror; The Calamitous Fourteenth Century.” It used the life of nobleman Enguerrand VII de Courcy, whose life spanned the entire century, to compare the 14th century with late-20th century Europe. Weather wise it was a transitional century as the world cooled from the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) to the Little Ice Age (LIA).
As the average location of the Arctic air front moved inexorably toward the Equator the Jet Stream meandered further north and south so temperature and precipitation fluctuated widely from year to year. It also resulted in more blocking systems so that instead of weather patterns changing on a 4 to 6 week cycle in the middle latitudes they became prolonged to 12 weeks and longer.
This meant in many years it became difficult to tell summers from winters. Summers were cool and wet while winters were warm and wet. These conditions resulted in many changes and negative impacts on most flora and fauna, but not all.
Humans suffered as harvests failed, prices for basic grains grew and malnutrition and starvation increased significantly. Impact on wheat prices for four European nations is shown in Figure1. Price increase from 1200 on is not as dramatic as occurred with the onset of the LIA but is significant.
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