El roman climatic optimum or medieval, sometimes referred to as the 1000 year global warming or embellished 1000 year, was a period of unusually warm weather in the North Atlantic region that lasted from roughly the 10th to the 14th century. Climate optima are often mentioned in discussions that fuel the contemporary debate on global warming. Some studies point to this period as a medieval climate anomaly of global cooling and/or highlight the importance of its effects beyond the anecdotal realm of temperature. The roman climatic optimum It had higher temperature levels than the subsequent Little Ice Age, more precisely equivalent to the 1990s, but would not reach the "global" temperature levels of the XNUMXst century.
In this article we are going to tell you about the characteristics of the Roman climatic optimum and how they affected the world.
Roman climatic optimum
Since the last ice age, climatic rhythms have been interrupted several times. The Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period They are two episodes from the last two thousand years. Due to the lack of accurate historical documents covering the entire Earth and the lack of high-resolution models that allow us to reconstruct past climates, we still don't know the exact dates, temperature amplitudes, or spatial extent. These seem to be able to vary according to the hemisphere and the main biogeographical regions.
According to available historical and paleoclimatic data, there was a Roman climatic optimum (warmest period), whose start and end dates remain unclear. In the European Middle Ages, it would appear around 950 to 1350. Preliminary studies of this climatic event and the subsequent Little Ice Age have been carried out largely in Europe, where the phenomenon seems to be the most visible and, above all, the best documented. To learn more about the conditions that facilitated this period, you can read about the climate that was decisive in the fall of the Roman Empire and about the medieval warm period.
Past weather events
Initially, temperature changes were thought to be global. However, these views are controversial. A 2001 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change summed up the state of knowledge, according to experts and scientific panels within the organization: "... the current facts do not allow us to say 'there is a synchronized cooling or warming periods are unusual during the period into consideration, and the traditional terms 'little ice age' and 'Roman climatic optimum' are of little use in describing trends in average temperature changes over the past few centuries«.
According to the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Agency (NOAA), “the idea of a hemispheric or global 'medieval climate optimum' would have been warmer than the current one. Or something else, has not been found" and that "existing traces suggest that there was no long-term period, the temperature of the hemisphere or of the world can reach or surpass the temperatures of the XNUMXth century”.
Some paleoclimatologists working on the reconstruction of historical climatic regions often refer to the coldest period as the "Little Ice Age" and the warmest period as "Medieval Global Warming". Others follow convention, and when they identify a major climate event within the Little Ice Age, or optimum climate, they link their events to that period. Therefore, some of the best weather events are periods of increased humidity or cold, rather than strictly warmer periods, and this is especially true in central Antarctica, where opposite evolutionary climate performances have been recorded in the North Atlantic.
Roman climatic optimum in different parts of the world
North Atlantic and North America
The Vikings took advantage of the ice-free seas to colonize Greenland and other remote areas in the far north. The PCM was followed by the Little Ice Age, a cooling era that lasted until the 800th century. In the Chesapeake Bay (USA), the researchers found large temperature changes during the climatic optimum (about 1300-1400 years) and the Little Ice Age (about 1850-XNUMX years), which may be related to changes in intensity of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation and his relationship with him current climate change.
Sediments from the Pyrmont Swamp in the lower Hudson Valley (New York, USA) attest to the warm and dry medieval period between 800 and 1300. A prolonged drought has affected parts of the western United States, particularly eastern California and the western Great Basin. Alaska had to experience 3 similar heat waves: from 1 to 300 AD, from 850 to 1200 and after 1800. During the most favorable climates, Viticulture spread from northern Europe to southern England, where it still exists today.
Other regions
The climate of East Equatorial Africa alternated between being drier than today and relatively wetter. The driest climate occurred during the Medieval Climatic Optimum, around 1000–1270, suggesting that conditions during this event had a significant impact on the region, similar to other notable periods in climate history.
Ice cores from the east of the Bransfield Basin on the Antarctic Peninsula clearly show the Little Ice Age event and optimal medieval climate. Carrots left to distinguish the cold period around 1000-1100 AD AD accurately illustrates the fact that optimum climate is a moving concept, and during this "warm" period, there may be simultaneous local warming (at the North Pole ) and a cooling (at the South Pole).
Research on Pacific corals suggests that cold, dry conditions may have persisted well into the second millennium, consistent with possible environmental manifestations of La Niña. Although data for Australia are very sparse (climate optimum and the Little Ice Age), evidence of rippled gravel formations suggests permanent moisture at Lake Eyre in the south. In the 9th and 10th centuries, this was consistent with a typical La Niña phenomenon, although it was not sufficient on its own to show annual changes in lake levels or climatic conditions elsewhere in Australia.
Adhikari and Kumon, who took sediment samples from Lake Nakatsuna in central Japan, they also noted the existence of an optimal climate and the subsequent Little Ice Age. This finding is relevant to understanding climate variations and their impact on diverse geographies.
In 1996, carbon-14 dating of sediment samples from the Sargasso Sea showed that during the Little Ice Age, sea surface temperatures were about 1°C lower than during the 1960-1990 period, and during the Roman climatic optimum were higher than during the period 1960-1990. 1990 period around 1°C.
