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Abstract
Rogation ceremonies are religious requests to God. Pro-pluvia rogations were celebrated during dry conditions to ask God for rain. In this work, we have recovered 37 pro-pluvia rogations from 14 documentary sources (e.g.,: ecclesiastical manuscripts, books, and different magazines and newspapers). All of the rogations were celebrated in Extremadura region (interior of southwest of Spain) during the period 1824–1931. Climate of Extremadura is strongly dominated by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Therefore, pro-pluvia rogations have been associated to the NAO index and the relationship between them has been analyzed. The most relevant results are found in the relationship between pro-pluvia rogations in month n and the positive values of the NAO index for months n-1 and n-2, being statistically significant at 95% confidence level. Thus, the results evidence that the rogation ceremonies of Extremadura are a good proxy for the NAO index.
Highlights
Climate proxies, i.e., non climatic variables with a high correlation with climate parameters, are required to know the pre-instrumental climate
We are going to work with 21 dates of spring pro-pluvia rogations, looking for anomalies in the monthly North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index
Results from the analysis of the NAO monthly anomalies averaged for our 21 dates of spring pro-pluvia rogations show that the value for February is statistically significant at the 95% confidence level
Summary
I.e., non climatic variables with a high correlation with climate parameters, are required to know the pre-instrumental climate. Out of the natural proxies, documentary sources preserved in archive and libraries are an important source of information to understand the past climate variability. One of the most used documentary proxies in the Mediterranean region for drought reconstruction is the rogation ceremonies [14]. Rogations are religious rites celebrated in order to ask God for certain intentions (take care of kings, wars, appropriate weather, etc.). When there was a notable drought during sowing time, farmers asked God for rain. Rogation ceremonies celebrated in these conditions are called pro-pluvia rogations. On the contrary, when people asked God to stop the rain and severe weather, they are called pro-serenitate rogations. Pro-pluvia and pro-serenitate rogations are useful documentary proxies to identify dry and wet extremes, respectively. Due to Atmosphere 2020, 11, 282; doi:10.3390/atmos11030282 www.mdpi.com/journal/atmosphere
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