The characteristic of the climate and its changes in Poland (Central Europe) in the 16th century

Abstract

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.