The Medieval Warm Period

The Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age are widely considered to have been the major features of the Earth's climate over the past 1000 years. In this volume the issue of whether there really was a Medieval Warm Period, and if so, where and when, is addressed. The types of evidence examined include historical documents, tree rings, ice cores, glacial-geological records, borehole temperature, paleoecological data and records of solar receipts inferred from cosmogenic isotopes. Growth in the availability of several of these types of data in recent years, and technical advances in their derivation and use, warrant this state-of-the-art re-examination of Medieval Warm Period.
The book will be of value to all those with an interest in the natural variability of the climate system, for example those concerned with anticipating and detecting anthropogenic climate change.

Was there a `Medieval Warm Period', and if so, Where and When? M.K. Hughes, H.F. Diaz. Glacial Geological Evidence for the Medieval Warm Period; J.M. Grove, R. Switsur. Evidence for Climatic Conditions between ca. 900--1300 A.D. in the Southern Canadian Rockies; B.H. Luckman. Tree-Ring and Glacial Evidence for the Medieval Warm Epoch and the Little Ice Age in Southern South America; R. Villalba. Tree-Ring Reconstructed Rainfall over the Southeastern U.S.A. during the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age; D.W. Stahle, M.K. Cleaveland. Middle Ages Temperature Reconstructions in Europe, a Focus on Northeastern Italy; F. Serre-Bachet. The Medieval Warm Period on the Southern Colorado Plateau; J.S. Dean. A Warm and Wet Little Climatic Optimum and a Cold and Dry Little Ice Age in the Southern Rocky Mountains, U.S.A.; K.L. Petersen. The Correlation of Summer Precipitation in the Southwestern U.S.A. with Isotopic Records of Solar Activity during the Medieval Warm Period; O.K. Davis. Evidence for the Existence of the Medieval Warm Period in China; Zhang De'er. Major Wet Interval in White Mountains Medieval Warm Period Evidenced in delta13C of Bristlecone Pine Tree Rings; S.W. Leavitt. The Medieval Solar Activity Maximum; J.L. Kirikowic, P.E. Damon. An Analysis of the Time Scales of Variability in Centuries-Long ENSI-Sensitive Records in the Last 1000 Years; H.F. Diaz, R.S. Pulwarty.