REPOSITORY
THE NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY
IN TORUŃ
is an institutional repository of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The task of the Repository is to promote scientific achievements and research conducted at NCU and to support teaching.
Recent Submissions
Thermal conditions on the coast of Labrador during the late 19th/early 20th century
(European Society for Environmental History, 2025-08-19) Singh, Garima; Przybylak, Rajmund; Wyszyński, Przemysław; Araźny, Andrzej; Chmist, Konrad
The late 19th/early 20th-century Moravian missionary observations offer an exclusive perspective on the climate of the Labrador
coast, providing essential data on air temperature, air pressure, cloud cover, precipitation and wind patterns and short descriptions of
the weather from observations made three or five times a day. This study focuses on the analysis of air temperature conditions in
Labrador's coastal region using invaluable instrumental meteorological observations, which were carried out by Moravian missionaries on behalf of the Deutsche Seewarte. These data records are sourced from Deutscher Wetterdienst (Germany). Long continuous series of sub-daily temperature series (from 7 to 36 years) are available for six stations: Rama (1882–90), Hebron (1882–1918), Okak (1883–89), Nain (1882–1913), Zoar (1882–94) and Hoffenthal (1882–98). The sub-daily data will be used to calculate mean daily air temperature (MDAT) using the simple arithmetic mean. Such calculated MDATs will be corrected to the real mean. The corrected MDAT data will be used to calculate standard climate statistics (monthly, seasonal and yearly means, day-to-day temperature variability, thermal seasons, etc.) as well as to calculate indices such as growing degree days (GDDs), air thawing index (ATI), positive degree days (PDDs) and air freezing index (AFI) degree days.The ther mal conditions of the study period in the coastal part of Labrador will be compared to present-day ones. The analysis improves the knowledge about the region's climate variability during the early instrumental period.
Changes in bioclimatic conditions on the coast of the Labrador Peninsula in the late 19th/early 20th century
(European Society for Environmental History, 2025-08-19) Chmist, Konrad; Araźny, Andrzej; Przybylak, Rajmund; Wyszyński, Przemysław; Singh, Garima
The contemporary warming that we are observing on Earth is most intense in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic. Until the mid-20th century,
human impact on the Arctic environment and climate was small, so it is extremely important to understand these past conditions as
best as possible in order to better understand current and future changes. To date, there has been little work analysing the climate of
the Labrador coast dating back to the late 19th/early 20th century. In the case of bioclimatic studies, there are even fewer such works.
The main aim of this paper is to fill this gap. Changes in bioclimatic conditions in the northeastern part of the Labrador Peninsula were
estimated based on meteorological observations (air temperature, atmospheric pressure and wind speed) taken from six stations:
Hebron, Hoffenthal, Nain, Okak, Rama and Zoar. They were carried out three times a day (8:00, 14:00 and 20:00) by Moravian
missionaries on behalf of Deutsche Seewarte and in accordance with its standardised guidelines. Based on these meteorological
data, the following bioclimatic indices were performed and analysed: Wind Chill Temperature (WCT), Insulation Predicted (Iclp) and
atmospheric pressure stimulus. Bioclimatic conditions in the historical period were compared with the conditions occurring in the
modern period on the Labrador Peninsula.
1000-year of flood occurrences in Poland
(European Society for Environmental History, 2025-08-22) Ghazi, Babak; Przybylak, Rajmund; Oliński, Piotr; Pospieszyńska, Aleksandra
Knowledge about the frequency, intensity, and genesis of floods during historical periods in river basins worldwide is limited, mainly
because the documentary evidence contains gaps in the coverage, quality and range of the necessary information. A comprehensive
and reliable database is also time-consuming to create; therefore, there are few studies based on documentary evidence that analyze
historical floods in various parts of the world for longer periods preceding the advent of instrumental measurements. Using a
developed novel, reliable database of flood occurrences in Poland in the 11th–18th centuries and a list of floods for the 19th and 20th
centuries based on a literature review, the frequency, intensity, genesis, and spatial distribution of floods in Poland in the last
millennium were investigated. Analysis of results demonstrated the occurrence of 1,680 floods in Poland in the last millennium. The
18th century was the most abundant in recorded floods (356, 21%). Floods in the period 1001–1800 were most frequent in the Oder
River basin (671, 55%), and in the Silesia region (553, 43%). Summer (JJA) was the most flood-prone season (46%), and therefore,
rain was the main contributing factor to most of the flood occurrences in Poland (44%). According to the Mann-Kendall multi-temporal trend analyzing, overall, positive trends were more numerous for the periods of 1501–1700 and 1601–1800, whereas, more numerous negative for period of 1801–2000.
The characteristic of the climate and its changes in Poland (Central Europe) in the 16th century
(European Society for Environmental History, 2025-08-19) Przybylak, Rajmund; Oliński, Piotr; Koprowski, Marcin; Szychowska-Krąpiec, Elżbieta; Krąpiec, Marek; Pospieszyńska, Aleksandra; Puchałka, Radosław
The paper presents the updated state of knowledge on climate and climate change in Poland (Central Europe) in the 16th century. The
multiproxy approach was utilised to improve the existing knowledge. All available quantitative climate reconstructions created since the 1990s based on biological proxies and documentary evidence were utilised for this purpose. In addition, four new reconstructions
using three dendrochronological series and a new reconstruction of temperature based on an updated extensive database
containing weather notes extracted from historical sources have been used. The cold season, especially the temperature in February
and March, has the greatest influence on the growth of conifers in lowland and upland parts of Poland. All available reconstructions based on dendrochronological data represent this time of the year. Winter temperature reconstructed for Poland was
used as the proxy for annual temperature proxies instead of the more usual use of summer temperature. Climate humidity and
changes therein were estimated using documentary evidence describing the occurrence and intensity of the precipitation. The range of humidity of seasons was estimated using a seven-degree scale (-3[extremely dry], -2 [very dry], …, +2[very wet], +3[extremely wet]).
Both thermal and pluvial extreme seasons, which were distinguished using analysis of the documentary evidence, were compared
against the list of negative and positive pointer years of Abies alba, Pinus sylvestris and Quercus spp. (which are usually the result of
extreme climate conditions) available for Poland.
Strong wind occurrence in Poland from the 13th to 16th centuries based on documentary evidence
(European Geosciences Union, 2025-09-04) Przybylak, Rajmund; Araźny, Andrzej; Filipiak, Janusz; Oliński, Piotr; Wyszyński, Przemysław; Szwaba, Artur
A comprehensive database of strong winds up until AD 1600 was created based on documentary evidence for the area within the modern-day borders of Poland. Three types of documentary sources were used: handwritten and unpublished, published, and “secondary” literature. The database contains detailed information about occurrences of strong wind (the location/region, time, duration and indexation for intensity, extent and character of damage), along with the exact textual content of the original weather note, the name of the source, and an evaluation of the source's quality. Five categories of strong winds were delimited: 1 – fresh and strong breeze (Beaufort scale 5–7); 2 – gale (8–9); 3 – storm (10–12); 4 – squall (i.e. gusty wind during a thunderstorm); and 5 – tornadoes. The intensity, extent, and character of damage were estimated based on the proposition given by Brázdil et al. (2004), which we slightly modified to include the Baltic Sea and its influence on coastal parts. In the database, 137 thus-defined strong winds were identified. A reliable estimate of some characteristics of the occurrence of strong winds in Poland seems possible from the mid-15th century onwards. The highest number of strong winds occurred in the second half of the 16th century, with a maximum in the 1570s. For each season, the greatest number of strong winds was found for the Baltic Coast and Pomeranian Region, followed by Silesia and Lesser Poland. Storms and gales were most common during the cold half-year (mainly in March, November, and December).