Papers by Chantal Camenisch
Regional Environmental Change, 2020
Droughts and heatwaves are both dangerous natural hazards with a potential significant impact on ... more Droughts and heatwaves are both dangerous natural hazards with a potential significant impact on human societies. In order to understand these hazards, it is important to examine such extreme events in the past. During the years 1471 to 1474, warm and dry weather conditions are described in most parts of Europe. Until now, these extraordinary years have not been examined in depth. Moreover, in spring 1473, a great drought and heat occurred in Europe. This heatwave facilitated a fast phenological development. During the summer and the autumn, temperatures were unusually high, and extremely dry weather conditions continued. In many places, the harvest began remarkably early, and there was abundant wine of a good quality. Fruit trees even bloomed for the second time in autumn. The heat and drought had a considerable impact on the environment and also caused damage to agriculture and society, including water shortages, harvest failures and rising food prices. The weather conditions of the years from 1471 to 1474 were outstanding during the fifteenth century and the heatwave and drought, as well as impacts on environment, economy, and society in the year 1473, were comparable to—if not more severe—than those in the year 1540. Learning from past climate anomalies like the 1473 drought in Europe is important for evaluating more recent and future climate extremes under increasing anthropogenic pressure.
The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History
This chapter introduces the state of the field in the historical climatology of the Middle Ages i... more This chapter introduces the state of the field in the historical climatology of the Middle Ages in Europe. This region and era witnessed significant human historical changes, as well as climatic phases identified as the Medieval Warm Period and the beginnings of the Little Ice Age. Starting with the work of Hubert H. Lamb and Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie in the 1960s, the field has seen a continual extension and refinement of research. Historical climatologists of medieval Europe have drawn on both narrative and administrative sources, which have provided both qualitative weather descriptions and information on climate proxies. Use of these sources poses particular methodological challenges, but historical climatologists have developed seasonal temperature and precipitation indices and long phenological records covering parts of medieval Europe.
The Holocene, 2021
Archival records and historical documents offer direct observation of weather and atmospheric con... more Archival records and historical documents offer direct observation of weather and atmospheric conditions and have the highest temporal and spatial resolution, and precise dating, of the available climate proxies. They also provide information about variables such as temperature, precipitation and climate extremes, as well as floods, droughts and storms. The present work studied Arab-Islamic documentary sources covering the western Mediterranean region (documents written by Arab-Islamic historians that narrate social, political and religious history) available for the period AD 680–1815. They mostly provide information on hydrometeorological events. In Iberia the most intense droughts were reported during AD 747–753, AD 814–822, AD 846–847, AD 867–874 and AD 914–915 and in the Maghreb AD 867–873, AD 898–915, AD 1104–1147, AD 1280–1340 and AD 1720–1815 had prevalent drought conditions. Intense rain episodes are also reported.
Climate of the Past, 2021
Narrative evidence contained within historical documents and inscriptions provides an important r... more Narrative evidence contained within historical documents and inscriptions provides an important record of climate variability for periods prior to the onset of systematic meteorological data collection. A common approach used by historical climatologists to convert such qualitative information into continuous quantitative proxy data is through the generation of ordinal-scale climate indices. There is, however, considerable variability in the types of phenomena reconstructed using an index approach and the practice of index development in different parts of the world. This review, written by members of the PAGES (Past Global Changes) CRIAS working group – a collective of climate historians and historical climatologists researching Climate Reconstructions and Impacts from the Archives of Societies – provides the first global synthesis of the use of the index approach in climate reconstruction. We begin by summarising the range of studies that have used indices for climate reconstructi...
Central Europe, 1531–1540 CE: The driest summer decade of the past five centuries?, 2020
Based on three drought indices (SPI, SPEI, Zindex) reconstructed from documentary evidence and in... more Based on three drought indices (SPI, SPEI, Zindex) reconstructed from documentary evidence and instrumental records, the summers of 1531–1540 were identified as the driest summer decade during the 1501–2015 period in the Czech Lands. Based on documentary data, extended from the Czech scale to central Europe, dry patterns of various intensities (represented, for example, by dry spells, low numbers of precipitation days, very low rivers, and dryingout of water sources) occurred in 1532, 1534–1536, 1538, and particularly 1540, broken by wetter or normal patterns in 1531, 1533, 1537, and 1539. Information relevant to summer droughts extracted from documentary data in central Europe was confirmed in summer precipitation totals from a multiproxy reconstruction for Europe by Pauling et al. (2006) and further by self-calibrated summer Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) reconstruction from tree ring widths in Old World Drought Atlas (OWDA) by Cook et al. (2015). The summer patterns describ...
Past Global Changes Magazine 28/1, p. 30, 2020
A report on the 2nd CRIAS Workshop, Leipzig, Germany, 7-8 October 2019
Camenisch Chantal Endless Cold the Sporer Minimum and Its Economic Impact During the 1430 Ies in Europe in 94th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting Extreme Weather Climate and the Built Environment New Perspectives Opportunities and Tools 12th History Symposium Atlanta 4 04 2014, Feb 4, 2014
Camenisch Chantal Climatic Variations in the Low Countries During the 15th Century and Their Impact on Economy and Society in International Medieval Congress University of Leeds 07 10 07 2008, Jul 1, 2008
Camenisch Chantal Prier Guerroyer Et Soigner Des Inventaires Tres Revelateurs Patrimoine Fribourgeois Freiburger Kulturguter 20 Pp 48 53 Service Des Biens Culturels, Sep 1, 2014
This paper focusses on historical climate impact research, one of the branches of historical clim... more This paper focusses on historical climate impact research, one of the branches of historical climatology with an emphasis on the Little Ice Age. It provides examples of the theoretical concepts, models, and further structuring considerations that are used in historical climate impact research, which are especially fitting to the examined period. We distinguish between the impact of climate on society by timescale in long-term, conjunctural or medium-term, and short-term impacts. Moreover, a simplified climate-society interaction model developed by Daniel Krämer is presented, as well as the concept of the Little Ice Age-type Impact (LIATIMP) by Christian Pfister and the vulnerability concept regarding climatic variability and extreme weather events. Furthermore, the paper includes a state-of-the-art application of the historical climate impact research and discussion of research gaps. Cuando el tiempo se volvió malo. La investigación de los impactos del clima en la sociedad y la economía durante la Pequeña Edad del Hielo en Europa RESUMEN. Este trabajo se centra en el estudio del impacto histórico del clima, una de las ramas de la climatología histórica, en este caso en relación con la Pequeña Edad del Hielo. Proporciona ejemplos de conceptos teóricos, modelos, y consideraciones estructurales que se emplean en la investigación histórica del impacto climático. Distinguimos el impacto del clima en la so-ciedad a distintas escalas, a largo plazo, coyuntural o a medio plazo, y a corto plazo. Por otro lado, se presenta un modelo simplificado de interacción clima-sociedad desarrollado por Daniel Krämer, así como el concepto de im-pacto del tipo de la Pequeña Edad del Hielo de Christian Pfister y el concepto de vulnerabilidad en relación con la variabilidad climática y el impacto his-tórico del clima y de los eventos extremos. Finalmente, el trabajo incluye una actualización de la investigación sobre el impacto histórico del clima y una discusión acerca de las lagunas de investigación existentes.
Changes in climate affected human societies throughout the last millennium. While European cold p... more Changes in climate affected human societies throughout the last millennium. While European cold periods in the 17th and 18th century have been assessed in detail, earlier cold periods received much less attention due to sparse information available. New evidence from proxy archives, historical documentary sources and climate model simulations permit us to provide an interdisciplinary, systematic assessment of an exceptionally cold period in the 15th century. Our assessment includes the role of internal, unforced climate variability and external forcing in shaping extreme climatic conditions and the impacts on and responses of the medieval society in northwestern and central Europe. Climate reconstructions from a multitude of natural and anthropogenic archives indicate that the 1430s were the coldest decade in northwestern and central Europe in the 15th century. This decade is characterised by cold winters and average to warm summers resulting in a strong seasonal cycle in temperature. Results from comprehensive climate models indicate consistently that these conditions occurred by chance due to the partly chaotic internal variability within the climate system. External forcing like volcanic eruptions tends to reduce simulated temperature seasonality and cannot explain the reconstructions. The strong seasonal cycle in temperature reduced food production and led to increasing food prices, a subsistence crisis and a famine in parts of Europe. Societies were not prepared to cope with failing markets and interrupted trade routes. In response to the crisis, authorities implemented numerous measures of supply policy and adaptation such as the installation of grain storage capacities to be prepared for future food production shortfalls.
Changes in climate affected human societies throughout the last millennium. While European cold p... more Changes in climate affected human societies throughout the last millennium. While European cold periods in the 17th and 18th century have been assessed in detail, earlier cold periods received much less attention due to sparse information available. New evidence from proxy archives, historical documentary sources and climate model simulations permit us to provide an interdisciplinary, systematic assessment of an exceptionally cold period in the 15th century. Our assessment includes the role of internal, unforced climate variability and external forcing in shaping extreme climatic conditions and the impacts on and responses of the medieval society in northwestern and central Europe. Climate reconstructions from a multitude of natural and anthropogenic archives indicate that the 1430s were the coldest decade in northwestern and central Europe in the 15th century. This decade is characterised by cold winters and average to warm summers resulting in a strong seasonal cycle in temperature. Results from comprehensive climate models indicate consistently that these conditions occurred by chance due to the partly chaotic internal variability within the climate system. External forcing like volcanic eruptions tends to reduce simulated temperature seasonality and cannot explain the reconstructions. The strong seasonal cycle in temperature reduced food production and led to increasing food prices, a subsistence crisis and a famine in parts of Europe. Societies were not prepared to cope with failing markets and interrupted trade routes. In response to the crisis, authorities implemented numerous measures of supply policy and adaptation such as the installation of grain storage capacities to be prepared for future food production shortfalls.
Climate of the Past Discussions, 2016
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Papers by Chantal Camenisch
They provide precise information from annual to daily resolution, at defined locations, for all seasons.
However, the information in archives of society is neither as continuous nor homogenous
as that from physical records left by natural processes (the “archives of nature”). The diversity of
sources demands a diversity of methods for reconstruction, as well as careful compilation and interpretation
to overcome problems of subjectivity and errors in recording and transmission.
To get the most precise and significant results from historical climatology it is crucial to adopt interdisciplinary
approaches and to combine methods and results from archives of societies with those
from the archives of nature. Moreover, a combination of societal with natural archives can thus be
used for calibration of natural archive proxies.
This workshop aims to evaluate and integrate different methodological approaches from historical
climatology over all historical periods (including antiquity) and geographical regions, and to identify
and disseminate best practices in the field. Secondly, the workshop aims to promote interdisciplinary
collaboration between historical climatologists and (paleo)climatologists, especially by identifying
ways to effectively share historical climatology data and combine historical and paleoclimate information
in high-resolution reconstructions.
The online exhibition "Weathered History" of the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) visualises climate history for the first time using objects from 12,000 years of human history. On display are diverse testimonies from a wide range of countries, from cave paintings to sometimes curious technical inventions such as the 'dandy horse' and weather reports on cigarette packets from Hong Kong. The exhibition, which is available in German and English, was realised in cooperation with the CRIAS working group of the international research network Past Global Changes (PAGES).
Humans have always been confronted with changing environmental conditions and climate changes. Extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and storms or natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions often brought destruction and death. They imprinted themselves on the memory of the survivors and left more or less visible traces in art, science and everyday life. The exhibition "Weathered History" follows some of these traces. Some objects may be surprising witnesses to the memory of weather catastrophes; but they also show how skilfully historical societies adapted to climate changes. The selection of objects is global, but there are remarkable pieces from the German-speaking countries in particular: The oldest drinkable wine in the world, which owes its creation to a millennial summer; a miniature horn made of clay for protection against thunderstorms from Martin Luther's childhood home or the bell that inspired Friedrich Schiller to write his famous poem of the same name.
The online exhibition was curated by GWZO staff members Diana Lucia Feitsch and Dr Martin Bauch, who leads the VW Foundation-funded Freigeist Junior Research Group "The Dantean Anomaly (1309-1321)" at the Institute. The team examines rapid climate change at the beginning of the 14th century and its effects on late medieval Europe. "What is unique about the exhibition is that no one ever tried to present a history of climate change with objects. Every researcher knows the one or the other object, but they have never been brought together. We tried to do that in a selection. I think we have successfully assembled the collective knowledge of a large professional community from the humanities and natural sciences“, says Martin Bauch. The greatest difficulty in realizing the exhibition was the current tense global pandemic situation. "It has been a challenge to clarify publication rights from around the world and get images with a decent resolution in these pandemic times," Diana Lucia Feitsch says, "with archives and libraries closed or hardly available for requests."
On the GWZO's YouTube channel, the two curators provide a more detailed insight into the exhibition "Weathered History", which can now be visited online. For example, they explain their motives for creating this exhibition and present their personal favourite piece. The interview is the first episode of the new in-house GWZO video series "Ostblick", which allows insights into the work at the GWZO even under pandemic conditions. | https://youtu.be/lnjQroBDZtM