The Historical Time Frame (Past 1000 Years)

Abstract

This chapter summarises the climatic and environmental information that can be inferred from proxy archives of the Baltic Sea area during the past millennium (1000 years). The proxy archives mainly comprise tree-ring analyses together with historical documents on extreme weather events and weather-related disasters. In addition to the reconstructed climate, climatic conditions are simulated using a regional climate model covering the Baltic Sea area. The chapter focuses on three of the main climatic periods of the past millennium: the Medieval Warm Period (900–1350), the Transitional Period (1350–1550) and the Little Ice Age (1550–1850). During these main historical climatic periods, climatic conditions were not uniform. Shorter warm/cool and wet/dry fluctuations were observed depending on regional factors.