Summer Temperatures in the Tatra Mountains During the Maunder Minimum (1645–1715)

Abstract

This chapter presents a variability of summer temperatures (JJA) in the Tatra Mountains during a period of relatively low solar activity, known as the Maunder Minimum (1645–1715). Results are based on a reconstruction of temperatures at the upper timberline on the northern slopes (about 1,500 m) for the period 1550–2004. According to summer temperatures the investigated period can be divided into two distinctly observed phases. The first one is a relatively cool period connected with the Little Ice Age. This period started in 1576 and lasted till 1675. According a significant decrease (2.7 K), exceptional variations of temperatures were observed between 1661 (very warm summer) and 1662–1663 (two the coolest summers). During the cool and extremely wet summer of 1662 on August 5th the largest natural rock-fall catastrophe in the Tatra Mountains took place. After 1675 (the Late Maunder Minimum) the variability of summer temperatures was greater than before. The most evident warm period occurred in years 1676–1688. The summer of 1687 was the third warmest summer (Δt +2.6 K) in history (since 1550). After 11 relatively cool summers (1689–1699), three warm seasons were observed in 1700–1703. From 1704 till the end of the Maunder Minimum summer temperatures in the Tatra Mountain showed a downward tendency.