Mariano Barriendos i Vallvé

Secular Climatic Oscillations as Indicated by Catastrophic Floods in the Spanish Mediterranean Coastal Area (14th–19th Centuries)

Historical documentation describing events on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula allows us to reconstruct the record of catastrophic floods. Through this information, it is possible to identify and to date three climatic oscillations within the so-called ‘Little Ice Age’: 1570–1630, 1760–1800 and 1830–1870, which coincide with advances in some Alps glaciers.

The use of rogation ceremony records in climatic reconstruction: a case study from Catalonia (Spain)

The use of rogation ceremonies due to environmental causes constitutes an important source of information in paleoclimatic reconstructions. Their specific characteristics and full documental records permit highly reliable series to be reconstructed with daily, monthly, seasonal or annual resolution over periods of several centuries (3–4 centuries in the case of Catalonia). The levels of intensity, reflected in the type of religious ceremony enacted, allows quantification. Comparative analysis is made possible by the similarity of the mechanisms developed in different localities. The use of these series in paleoclimatological studies is a promising line of research, particularly as regards the “pro pluvia” rogations celebrated in the Mediterranean countries and in South America.

Seasonal Temperature and Precipitation Fluctuations in Selected Parts of Europe During the Sixteenth Century

The article in hand presents a comparative analysis of unweighted thermic and hygric index series of different European regions (northern Switzerland, Germany, the Czech Republic, northern Italy, ancient Hungary, Poland and Spain). Besides methodological aspects about the formation of indices, especially the progress as well as the question of similarity development of these series in the 16th century are discussed and shown on the balance sheet. It becomes evident that with respect to the temperature on the level of unweighted indices the European regions of Germany, the Czech Republic and Switzerland are very similar during all seasons. In winter and summer these correlations are especially evident, during the transitional seasons they are smaller. Larger differences exist between the central European core region and the adjacent areas of research. In principle, the hygric differences are larger than the thermic ones.In the course of the sixteenth century marked cooling phases occurred during all seasons with increasing accentuation. These phases were typical for the climate of the Little Ice Age. In addition to this long-term analysis, some outstanding years of extreme weather like those of 1540, 1573 and 1587 are presented, in the course of which questions of climatic impact are included. Finally, recent instrumental data was used to conduct an analysis that compared the similarities between the respective regions and the similarities between the empirical data and indices. On the one hand, this confirmed the spatial pattern, on the other hand the usability of the indices.

La calibración instrumental de registros climáticos documentales. Aproximación metodológica a resolución anual para el caso de la precipitación en Barcelona 1521-1989

Proxy-data information obtained from manuscript documentation of Spanish historical archives is rich and detailed concerning especially rainfall regime. Different statistical treatment methodologies allow data availability for climatic analysis. One of them is calibration of proxy-data with instrumental meteorological records of rainfall. This paper presents a first proof for the case study of Barcelona in yearly resolution.