Winter climate variability in Europe during the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and Little Ice Age (LIA)

Abstract

Knowledge of climate variability is necessary in order to forecast it in the future, both in the short and long term. In the last millennium, the climate of Europe showed important variations, especially during the winter. In this study we present the variability of the winter climate based on high-resolution paleoclimate records (ice caves, speleothems, lake sediments, tree rings and historical evidences). The analysis on various proxy indicators indicates that the MWP was a warm and dry period in its first part (until AD 900), followed by a warm and humid phase in the second part (AD 900-1250) in Romania, the same warm and humid trend was also observed in Central and South-Western Europe