'Little Ice Age' summer temperature variations: their nature and relevance to recent global warming trends

1993/12/01 by Raymond S. Bradley, Philip D. Jonest · 22 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Tree-ring climate responses #Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Little ice age #Climatology #Ice core #Volcano #Proxy (statistics) #Paleoclimatology #Dendrochronology #Environmental science #Climate change #Greenhouse gas #Physical geography #Global warming #Period (music) #Ice age #Geography #Geology #Oceanography #Glacial period #Archaeology

paper · doi:10.1177/095968369300300409

openalex publication_date 1993/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/07

Abstract

Climatic changes resulting from greenhouse gases will be superimposed on natural climatic variations. High-resolution proxy records of past climate can be used to extend our perspective on regional and hemispheric changes of climate back in time by several hundred years. Using historical, tree-ring and ice core data, we examine climatic variations during the period commonly called the 'Little Ice Age'. The coldest conditions of the last 560 years were between AD 1570 and 1730, and in the nineteenth century. Unusually warm conditions have prevailed since the 1920s, probably related to a relative absence of major explosive volcanic eruptions and higher levels of greenhouse gases.

Citations

• Reconstructed Northern Hemisphere annual temperature since 1671 based on high-latitude tree-ring data from North America

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