Abstract

Abstract. This paper applies the methods of historical climatology to present a climate reconstruction for the area of the Burgundian Low Countries during the 15th century. The results are based on documentary evidence that has been handled very carefully, especially with regard to the distinction between contemporary and non-contemporary sources. Approximately 3000 written records derived from about 100 different sources were examined and converted into seasonal seven-degree indices for temperature and precipitation. For the Late Middle Ages only a few climate reconstructions exist. There are even fewer reconstructions which include spring and autumn temperature or any precipitation information at all. This paper therefore constitutes a useful contribution to the understanding of climate and weather conditions in the less well researched but highly interesting 15th century. The extremely cold winter temperatures during the 1430s and an extremely cold winter in 1407/1408 are striking. Moreover, no other year in this century was as hot and dry as 1473. At the beginning and the end of the 1480s and at the beginning of the 1490s summers were considerably wetter than average.

Highlights

  • Le Roy Ladurie, one of the pioneers of historical climatology, stated the necessity for a quantitative, continuous and homogeneous series in order to reconstruct climate on the basis of historical documents for the time prior to instrumental records (1972)

  • This paper applies the methods of historical climatology to present a climate reconstruction for the area of the Burgundian Low Countries during the 15th century

  • There are methods that facilitate the transformation of this varied information into a reliable climate reconstruction based on quantitative series

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Summary

Introduction

Le Roy Ladurie, one of the pioneers of historical climatology, stated the necessity for a quantitative, continuous and homogeneous series in order to reconstruct climate on the basis of historical documents for the time prior to instrumental records (1972). A true treasure of rich narrative texts, including a variety of weather-related information, can be found in documentary sources produced in the Late Middle Ages (AD 1300–1500) This information consists of direct data (descriptions of temperatures and precipitation) and/or indirect data (climate proxies – phenomena which are related to climate such as the freezing of water bodies or plant phenology). They are far from being continuous or homogeneous. Since the source density in most cases is high enough, it is possible to detect anomalies and less extreme weather conditions This is unusual because most reconstructions based on this type of data focus on extreme weather

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