There is a growing need for past weather and climate data to support science and decision-making. This paper describes the compilation and construction of a global multivariable (air temperature, pressure, precipitation sum, number of precipitation days) monthly instrumental climate database that encompasses a substantial body of the known early instrumental time series. The dataset contains series compiled from existing databases that start before 1890 (though continuing to the present) as well as a large amount of newly rescued data. All series underwent a quality control procedure and subdaily series were processed to monthly mean values. An inventory was compiled, and the collection was deduplicated based on coordinates and mutual correlations. The data are provided in a common format accompanied by the inventory. The collection totals 12452 meteorological records in 118 countries. The data can be used for climate reconstructions and analyses. It is the most comprehensive global monthly climate dataset for the preindustrial period so far.
This content will become publicly available on December 1, 2024
Documentary climate data describe evidence of past climate arising from predominantly written historical documents such as diaries, chronicles, newspapers, or logbooks. Over the past decades, historians and climatologists have generated numerous document-based time series of local and regional climates. However, a global dataset of documentary climate time series has never been compiled, and documentary data are rarely used in large-scale climate reconstructions. Here, we present the first global multi-variable collection of documentary climate records. The dataset DOCU-CLIM comprises 621 time series (both published and hitherto unpublished) providing information on historical variations in temperature, precipitation, and wind regime. The series are evaluated by formulating proxy forward models (i.e., predicting the documentary observations from climate fields) in an overlapping period. Results show strong correlations, particularly for the temperature-sensitive series. Correlations are somewhat lower for precipitation-sensitive series. Overall, we ascribe considerable potential to documentary records as climate data, especially in regions and seasons not well represented by early instrumental data and palaeoclimate proxies.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 1854511
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10477360
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- NSF
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Scientific Data
- Volume:
- 10
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2052-4463
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Climate in the Iberian Peninsula is impacted by both internal and external climate modes, which are expected to shift in position and intensity due to anthropogenic climate change. Examples of such modes include the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the East Atlantic mode (EA). Changes in the behavior in these regional climate modes could significantly alter water availability in the Iberian Peninsula, a region identified by model projections as particularly sensitive to future warming scenarios. There has been extensive research and paleoclimate reconstructions of the NAO and its impacts on Iberian climate. However, to date few paleoclimate records have been developed to evaluate the behavior of the EA over the late Holocene and into the present. The development of highly resolved regional paleoclimate records from Iberia is critical for improving the predictive capability of regional climate models under future warming scenarios and to determine the extent to which different teleconnection patterns are influencing climate. Here we present a near annually resolved stable carbon isotope (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope time-series from three stalagmites from the Algarve region of southern Portugal from two caves within 2.3 km of each other. The southern coast of Portugal offers an ideal location to study the behavior of the EA due to the modulation of storm tracks coming across the North Atlantic Ocean into Iberia associated with the EA. U/Th dating indicates that our composite record spans the last millennia continuously through 2018 CE. Two stalagmites (GIA-19-1 and C-18-1) stopped growing around 1600 CE, during a dry interval, and sample GIA-19-2 grew continuously since the 15th century. GIA-19-2, with sub-annual resolution, is compared to modern instrumental records to evaluate the influence of specific environmental controls, including temperature and precipitation amounts. Isotope data from all three stalagmites exhibit substantial multidecadal variability indicating relatively wet and dry intervals. Based on our initial results, it is likely that both temperature and precipitation amount effects are the dominant controls on isotopic variability in these stalagmites. Comparison of the GIA-19-2 oxygen isotope time-series with the instrumental index (1950 to present) and reconstructed index (1650 CE to present) of the EA mode shows strong coherence with both index records. Hence, multidecadal variability observed in our stalagmite isotope time series may provide insight into the historical behavior of the EA mode and its resulting impacts on southern Portuguese climate.more » « less
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