Documentary-derived chronologies of rainfall variability in Antigua, Lesser Antilles, 1770–1890

Berland, A. J.; Metcalfe, Sarah E.; Endfield, Georgina H.

doi:10.5194/cp-9-1331-2013

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 21 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…This hypothesis is further supported by the increase in tropical Pacific sea surface salinity (Hendy et al, 2002) and the strengthening of the South American summer monsoon (SASM) during the LIA associated with a southward position of the ITCZ found in observation and modelling studies (e.g. Bird et al, 2011;Vuille et al, 2012;Apaéstegui et al, 2014). In addition, the possibility of dominant El Niño conditions during the LIA (Cobb et al, 2003;Langton et al, 2008) may also have played a role, although the question of how ENSO varied through the LIA is still debated (Yan et al, 2011;Henke et al, 2017;Emile-Geay et al, 2013).…”

Section: Inter-annual-to Centennial-scale Hydrological Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 71%

“…A five-point scale (from −2 for very dry to +2 for very wet; Table 1) was developed to describe the hydrological characteristics of each year based on information from the wet season (May-October; accounting for > 90 % of the annual rainfall), which follows the approach used previously to reconstruct precipitation variability from documentary sources (e.g. Nash and Endfield, 2002;Prieto, 2007;Berland et al, 2013). The 305-year reconstruction draws on information extracted from a total of more than 190 manuscripts held by the Archivo General de Centro America (AGCA, Guatemala City) and the Archivo Histórico de la Municipalidad de Antigua Guatemala (AHMAG, Antigua Guatemala).…”

Section: Definition Of the Semi-quantitative Hydrological Indexmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Response to David Nash

Anonymous

2017

Preprint

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Section: Inter-annual-to Centennial-scale Hydrological Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 71%

Section: Definition Of the Semi-quantitative Hydrological Indexmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response to David Nash

Anonymous

2017

Preprint

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“…English‐, French‐, and Sesotho‐language missionary accounts have revealed precipitation and temperature variability in Lesotho, the Kalahari, and Natal and Zululand (Endfield & Nash, ; Kelso & Vogel, ; Nash et al, ; Nash & Endfield, ; Nash & Grab, ), while private diaries have allowed a climate reconstruction of early 19th century Bombay (Adamson, ; Adamson & Nash, ). Similarly, ships' logs as well as missionary and plantation papers provided the basis for the reconstruction of rainfall variability and hurricane activity in the southern Caribbean (Berland, Metcalfe, & Endfield, ; Chenoweth & Divine, ). This quantitative and qualitative information has been vital to international and regional endeavors to extend the global climate record; reconstruct past climates of former colonies; and to understand colonial climate anxieties and change.…”

Section: Water Across Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Climate, weather, and water in history

Morgan

2018

WIREs Climate Change

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This essay integrates the largely separate trajectories of climate and water histories, their distinct historiographies, and their different methods and expertise. Informed by the human-nature insights of environmental history and historical geography, this paper identifies four intersections between histories of climate and water: first, conceptualizations of the climate and hydrological systems; second, adaptations to climate and hydrological variability and change; third, weather control; and finally, water over time. These particular intersections shed light on shared concerns for human relations to water and climate across different spatial and temporal scales; the development and function of networks of environmental knowledge; the formation and impact of environmental imaginaries; and the emergence of particular cultures of risk and resilience. The English-language histories of climate and water to which I refer pertain largely to the study of the 19th and 20th centuries in relation to the spread of European and North American empires. Histories of water, I argue, offer more personal and localized insights into histories of climate and climate change.

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“…Nash and Endfield, 2002;Prieto, 2007;Berland et al, 2013). The 305-year reconstruction draws on information extracted from a total of more than 190 manuscripts held by the Archivo General de Centro America (AGCA, Guatemala City) and the Archivo Histórico de la Municipalidad de Antigua Guatemala (AHMAG, Antigua Guatemala).…”

Section: Definition Of the Semi-quantitative Hydrological Indexmentioning

confidence: 99%

300 years of hydrological records and societal responses to droughts and floods on the Pacific coast of Central America

et al. 2018

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Abstract. The management of hydrological extremes and impacts on society is inadequately understood because of the combination of short-term hydrological records, an equally short-term assessment of societal responses and the complex multi-directional relationships between the two over longer timescales. Rainfall seasonality and inter-annual variability on the Pacific coast of Central America is high due to the passage of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Here we reconstruct hydrological variability and demonstrate the potential for assessing societal impacts by drawing on documentary sources from the cities of Santiago de Guatemala (now Antigua Guatemala) and Guatemala de la Asunción (now Guatemala City) over the period from 1640 to 1945. City and municipal council meetings provide a rich source of information dating back to the beginning of Spanish colonisation in the 16th century. We use almost continuous sources from 1640 AD onwards, including > 190 volumes of Actas de Cabildo and Actas Municipales (minutes of meetings of the city and municipal councils) held by the Archivo Histórico de la Municipalidad de Antigua Guatemala (AHMAG) and the Archivo General de Centro América (AGCA) in Guatemala City. For this 305-year period (with the exception of a total of 11 years during which the books were either missing or damaged), information relating to Catholic rogation ceremonies and reports of flooding events and crop shortages were used to classify the annual rainy season (May to October) on a five-point scale from very wet to very dry. In total, 12 years of very wet conditions, 25 years of wetter than usual conditions, 34 years of drier conditions and 21 years of very dry conditions were recorded. An extended drier period from the 1640s to the 1740s was identified and two shorter periods (the 1820s and the 1840s) were dominated by dry conditions. Wetter conditions dominated the 1760s-1810s and possibly record more persistent La Niña conditions that are typically associated with higher precipitation over the Pacific coast of Central America. The 1640s-1740s dry period coincides with the Little Ice Age and the associated southward displacement of the ITCZ.

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Documentary-derived chronologies of rainfall variability in Antigua, Lesser Antilles, 1770–1890

Cited by 14 publications

References 21 publications

Response to David Nash

Response to David Nash

Climate, weather, and water in history

300 years of hydrological records and societal responses to droughts and floods on the Pacific coast of Central America

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