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89-760: The NAC originates from where the Gulf Stream turns north at the Southeast Newfoundland Rise, a submarine ridge that stretches southeast from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland . The NAC flows northward east of the Grand Banks, from 40°N to 51°N, before turning sharply east to cross the Atlantic. It transports more warm tropical water to northern latitudes than any other boundary current; more than 40  Sv (40 million m/s; 1.4 billion cu ft/s) in

178-625: A climate reconstruction based on glacial length shows no great variation from 1600 to 1850 but a strong retreat thereafter. Therefore, any of several dates ranging over 400 years may indicate the beginning of the Little Ice Age: The Little Ice Age ended in the latter half of the 19th century or in the early 20th century. The 6th report of the IPCC describes the coldest period in the last millennium as: "...a multi-centennial period of relatively low temperature beginning around

267-433: A globally-synchronous increased glaciation. Thus current evidence does not support globally synchronous periods of anomalous cold or warmth over this interval, and the conventional terms of "Little Ice Age" and " Medieval Warm Period " appear to have limited utility in describing trends in hemispheric or global mean temperature changes in past centuries.... [Viewed] hemispherically, the "Little Ice Age" can only be considered as

356-469: A grain-based diet. After Greenland 's climate became colder and stormier around 1250, the diet of the Norse Viking settlements there steadily shifted away from agricultural sources. By around 1300, seal hunting provided over three quarters of their food. By 1350, there was reduced demand for their exports, and trade with Europe fell away. The last document from the settlements dates from 1412, and over

445-408: A high degree of accuracy, and this includes all four models which simulate collapse of the subpolar gyre. As the result, the study estimated the risk of an abrupt cooling event over Europe caused by the collapse of the current at 36.4%, which is lower than the 45.5% chance estimated by the previous generation of models In 2022, a paper suggested that previous disruption of subpolar gyre was connected to

534-493: A long-lived reputation for having a considerable warming influence on European climate. However, the principal cause for differences in winter climate between North America and Europe seems to be winds rather than ocean currents (although the currents do exert influence at very high latitudes by preventing the formation of sea ice ). Unlike the AMOC , the observations of Labrador Sea outflow showed no negative trend from 1997 to 2009, and

623-533: A modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during this period of less than 1°C relative to late twentieth century levels. The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of 2007 discusses more recent research and gives particular attention to the Medieval Warm Period: ...when viewed together, the currently available reconstructions indicate generally greater variability in centennial time scale trends over

712-594: A nonrotatory piston corer. The samples also showed volcanic activity which caused forest regeneration between 650 and 800. The instances of volcanic activity near Lake Pompal indicate varying temperatures, not a continuous coldness, during the Little Ice Age in Mesoamerica. In the North Atlantic, sediments accumulated since the end of the last ice age , which occurred nearly 12,000 years ago, show regular increases in

801-437: A pin-shaped section at the west edge of the Grand Banks, with the 22 kilometres (12 nmi; 14 mi) radius head of the pin surrounding the islands and the needle heading south for 348 km (188 nmi; 216 mi). Canada is performing the hydrographic and geological surveys necessary for claiming the entire continental shelf off eastern Canada, as allowed by the terms of the latest United Nations Convention on

890-446: A range between 5 and 50 years. The loss of this convection is estimated to lower the global temperature by up to 0.5 degrees, while the average temperature in certain regions of the North Atlantic decreases by around 3 degrees . There are also substantial impacts on regional precipitation . A 2023 study warns that the collapse could already happen by mid century. Grand Banks of Newfoundland The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are

979-499: A rare Atlantic tsunami that struck the south coast of Newfoundland , claiming 29 lives on the Burin Peninsula . Technological advances in fishing (such as using large factory-ships and sonar ), as well as geopolitical disputes over territorial sea and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) boundaries, led to overfishing and a serious decline in the fish stocks of the Grand Banks from around 1990. The Canadian Grand Banks fishery

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1068-626: A series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod , swordfish , haddock and capelin , as well as shellfish, seabirds and sea mammals. The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a group of underwater plateaus south-east of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf . These areas are relatively shallow, ranging from 15 to 91 metres (50 to 300 ft) in depth. The cold Labrador Current mixes with

1157-430: A tamperature nadir around 135 BP, and in south-central Alaska, mountain hemlock forests severely declined. In Glacier National Park , the last episode of glacier advance came in the late 18th and the early 19th centuries. In 1879, the famed naturalist John Muir found that Glacier Bay ice had retreated 48 miles (77 km). In Chesapeake Bay , Maryland , large temperature excursions were possibly related to changes in

1246-654: A war of succession to the Bohemian throne. Animosity between Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire (now Germany) added fuel to the fire. It soon escalated to a huge conflict that involved all the major European powers and devastated much of Germany. When the war ended, some regions of the Holy Roman Empire had seen their population drop by as much as 70%. Early European explorers and settlers of North America reported exceptionally severe winters. In southwestern Alaska, preexisting flexibility in foraging habits among

1335-695: Is a hiatus between 1627 and 1640, which is before the main period of such subjects from the 1640s to the 1660s. That relates well with climate records for the later period. The subjects are less popular after about 1660, but that does not match any recorded reduction in severity of winters and may reflect only changes in taste or fashion. In the later period between the 1780s and 1810s, snowy subjects again became popular. Neuberger analyzed 12,000 paintings, held in American and European museums and dated between 1400 and 1967, for cloudiness and darkness. His 1970 publication shows an increase in such depictions that corresponds to

1424-524: Is believed that rising sea levels submerged these around 8,000 years ago. While no archaeological evidence for a European presence near the Grand Banks survives from the period between the short-lived Greenland Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in 1000 CE and John Cabot 's transatlantic crossing in 1497, some evidence suggests that voyagers from the Basque Region and England (specifically from Bristol ) and others preceded Cabot. In

1513-459: Is believed to be linked to a multidecennial phase of droughts in the western Mediterranean. In southwestern Europe, a negative North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) combined with increased aridity caused an increase in wind-driven sediment deposition during the LIA. In his 1995 book, the early climatologist Hubert Lamb said that in many years, "snowfall was much heavier than recorded before or since, and

1602-614: The Labours of the Months , typically placed on the calendar pages of books of hours . January and February are typically shown as snowy, as in February in the famous cycle in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry , painted in 1412–1416 and illustrated below. Since landscape painting had not yet developed as an independent genre in art, the absence of other winter scenes is not remarkable. On

1691-487: The Little Ice Age . A 2022 Science Magazine review study on climate tipping points noted that in the scenarios where this convection collapses, it is most likely to be triggered by 1.8 degrees of global warming. However, model differences mean that the required warming may be as low as 1.1 degrees or as high as 3.8 degrees. Once triggered, the collapse of the current would most likely take 10 years from start to end, with

1780-561: The Swiss Alps were destroyed by encroaching glaciers during the mid-17th century. Canals and rivers in Great Britain and the Netherlands were frequently frozen deeply enough to support ice skating and winter festivals. As trade needed to continue during the prolonged winter often spanning 5 months, merchants equipped their boer style boats with planks and skates (runners), hence the iceboat

1869-557: The ocean circulation , variations in Earth's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ), inherent variability in global climate, and decreases in the human population (such as from the massacres by Genghis Khan , the Black Death and the epidemics emerging in the Americas upon European contact ). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report (TAR) of 2001 described

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1958-561: The 15th century some texts refer to a land called Bacalao , the land of the codfish, which is possibly Newfoundland. Within a few years of Cabot's voyage the existence of fishing grounds on the Grand Banks became generally known in Europe. Ships from France and Portugal pioneered fishing there, followed by vessels from Spain , while ships from England were scarce in the early years. This soon changed, especially after Bernard Drake 's Newfoundland Expedition in 1585 , which virtually wiped out

2047-540: The 15th century, with GMST averaging –0.03 [–0.30 to 0.06] °C between 1450 and 1850 relative to 1850–1900." Drangajökull , Iceland's northernmost glacier, reached its maximum extent during the LIA around 1400 CE. The Baltic Sea froze over twice, in 1303 and 1306–1307, and years followed of "unseasonable cold, storms and rains, and a rise in the level of the Caspian Sea." The Little Ice Age brought colder winters to parts of Europe and North America. Farms and villages in

2136-636: The 1990 film The Hunt for Red October . Herman Melville described passing through the Banks as a young sailor on his first voyage in his autobiographical novel Redburn: His First Voyage (1849), where he saw whales and a haunting shipwreck with weeks-dead sailors still on board. It is also featured in The Grey Seas Under , a non-fiction book by Canadian author Farley Mowat about the ocean-going maritime salvage tug Foundation Franklin . The Canadian patriotic song " Something to Sing About " opens with

2225-548: The Azores reflect the cooling of the LIA. Although the original designation of a Little Ice Age referred to the reduced temperature of Europe and North America, there is some evidence of extended periods of cooling outside those regions although it is not clear whether they are related or independent events. Mann states: While there is evidence that many other regions outside Europe exhibited periods of cooler conditions, expanded glaciation, and significantly altered climate conditions,

2314-663: The East Coast of the United States. Frajka-Williams et al. 2017 pointed out that recent changes in cooling of the subpolar gyre, warm temperatures in the subtropics and cool anomalies over the tropics, increased the spatial distribution of meridional gradient in sea surface temperatures , which is not captured by the AMO Index . A 2021 study found that this collapse occurs in only four CMIP6 models out of 35 analyzed. However, only 11 models out of 35 can simulate North Atlantic Current with

2403-712: The Elder painted Hunters in the Snow in Antwerp, so the mountains in the picture probably mean it was based on drawings or memories from crossing of the Alps during his trip to Rome in 1551–1552. It is one of 5 known surviving paintings, probably from a series of 6 or 12, known as “the Twelve Months”, that Breugel was commissioned to paint by a wealthy patron in Antwerp , Nicolaes Jonghelinck ( Hunters in

2492-615: The French invasion army under Pichegru marched on the frozen rivers of the Netherlands, and the Dutch fleet was locked in the ice in Den Helder harbour. Sea ice surrounding Iceland extended for miles in every direction and closed harbors to shipping. The population of Iceland fell by half, but that may have been caused by skeletal fluorosis after the eruption of Laki in 1783. Iceland also suffered failures of cereal crops and people moved away from

2581-671: The Gulf Stream turn northward near the "tail" of the Grand Banks at 50°W where the Azores Current branches off to flow south of the Azores . From there the NAC flows northeastward, east of the Flemish Cap (47°N, 45°W). Approaching the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, it then turns eastward and becomes much broader and more diffuse. It then splits into a colder northeastern branch and a warmer eastern branch. As

2670-464: The Labrador Sea convection began to intensify in 2012, reaching a new high in 2016. As of 2022, the trend of strengthened Labrador Sea convection appears to hold, and is associated with observed increases in marine primary production . Yet, a 150-year dataset suggests that even this recently strengthened convection is anomalously weak compared to its baseline state. Some climate models indicate that

2759-638: The Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Petroleum reserves have also been discovered and a number of oil fields are under development in this region, most notably the Hibernia , Terra Nova , and White Rose projects. However, the harsh environment on the Grand Banks also led to the Ocean Ranger disaster. The Northwest Atlantic Ocean is undergoing long-term warming from anthropogenic climate change . The surface water temperatures of

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2848-584: The Little Ice Age, which peaks between 1600 and 1649. Paintings and contemporary records in Scotland demonstrate that curling , ice skating and icesailing were popular outdoor winter sports, with curling dating to the 16th century and becoming widely popular in the mid-19th century. An outdoor curling pond constructed in Gourock in the 1860s remained in use for almost a century, but increasing use of indoor facilities, problems of vandalism, and milder winters led to

2937-588: The Little Ice Age, the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) became much weaker and the summer monsoon limit (SML) migrated southeastwards. Southwestern China became significantly colder and drier as a result of the weakening of the EASM caused by the decreased pressure gradient resulting from the cooling of the southern Eurasian landmass, while northwestern China, dominated by westerlies, saw an increase in precipitation. The temperature changes were unprecedented for

3026-489: The Little Ice Age. In particular, the Little Ice Age transformed environments around the Dutch Republic and made them easier to exploit in commerce and conflict. The Dutch were resilient, even adaptive, in the face of weather that devastated neighboring countries. Merchants exploited harvest failures, military commanders took advantage of shifting wind patterns, and inventors developed technologies that helped them profit from

3115-425: The Little Ice Age. The colder climate may have caused the wood that was used in his violins to be denser than in warmer periods and to contribute to the tone of his instruments. According to the science historian James Burke , the period inspired such novelties in everyday life as the widespread use of buttons and button-holes, as well as knitting of custom-made undergarments for the better covering and insulating of

3204-660: The Little Ice Age: livestock epidemics, cows that gave too little milk, late frosts, and unknown diseases. In general, the number of witchcraft trials rose as the temperature dropped, and trials decreased when temperature increased. The peaks of witchcraft persecutions overlap with the hunger crises that occurred in 1570 and 1580, the latter lasting a decade. The trials targeted primarily poor women, many of them widows. Not everybody agreed that witches should be persecuted for weather-making, but such arguments focused primarily not upon whether witches existed but upon whether witches had

3293-529: The Ming dynasty. This period of Little Ice Age corresponded to the period's major historical events. The Jurchen people lived in Northern China and formed a tributary state to the Ming dynasty and its Wanli Emperor . From 1573 to 1620, Manchuria experienced famine caused by extreme snowfall, which depleted agriculture production and devastated the livestock population. Scholars have argued that it had been caused by

3382-614: The Newfoundland Shelf have increased by 0.13 °C per decade from 1950 to 2016. Depth-averaged ocean temperatures (0–175 m) have not shown a warming trend during that same period. Semi-fictional depictions of fishermen working on the Grand Banks can be found in Rudyard Kipling 's novel Captains Courageous (1897) and in Sebastian Junger's non-fiction book The Perfect Storm (1997). The Grand Banks are also portrayed in

3471-458: The North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. The period has been conventionally defined as extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries, but some experts prefer an alternative time-span from about 1300 to about 1850. The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals. One began about 1650, another about 1770, and

3560-566: The North Atlantic, as did glaciers in Greenland . Anecdotal evidence suggests expanding glaciers almost worldwide. Based on radiocarbon dating of roughly 150 samples of dead plant material with roots intact that were collected from beneath ice caps on Baffin Island and Iceland , Miller et al. (2012) state that cold summers and ice growth began abruptly between 1275 and 1300, followed by "a substantial intensification" from 1430 to 1455. In contrast,

3649-574: The Snow and the Massacre of the Innocents , are thought to have been painted around 1565. His son Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564–1638) also painted many snowy landscapes, but according to Burroughs, he "slavishly copied his father's designs. The derivative nature of so much of this work makes it difficult to draw any definite conclusions about the influence of the winters between 1570 and 1600...". Bruegel

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3738-524: The Snow being for January): none of the other four that survive show a snow-covered landscape and both The Hay Harvest (July) and The Harvesters (August) depict warm summer days. Even The Return of the Herd (thought to be the painting for November) and The Gloomy Day (known to be for February) show landscapes free of snow. Burroughs says that snowy subjects return to Dutch Golden Age painting with works by Hendrick Avercamp from 1609 onwards. There

3827-532: The Spanish and Portuguese fishing-industries in this area. The fish stocks became important for the early European-settler economies of eastern Canada and New England . On 18 November 1929, the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake struck the southwestern part of the Grand Banks bordering the Laurentian Channel , causing an underwater landslide which resulted in extensive damage to transatlantic cables and generated

3916-530: The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , the eastern monsoon area of China was the earliest to experience the effects of the Little Ice Age, from 1560 to 1709. In the western region of China surrounding the Tibetan Plateau , the effects of the Little Ice Age lagged behind the eastern region, with significant cold periods from 1620 to 1749. As the Medieval Warm Period transitioned into

4005-636: The University of Arkansas discovered that many colonists arrived at the beginning of a seven-year drought. The droughts also decreased the Native American populations and led to conflict because of food scarcity. English colonists at Roanoke forced Native Americans of Ossomocomuck to share their depleted supplies with them. That led to warfare between the two groups, and Native American towns were destroyed. That cycle would repeat itself many times at Jamestown. The combination of fighting and cold weather also led to

4094-435: The amount of coarse sediment grains deposited from icebergs melting in the now-open ocean, indicating a series of 1–2 °C (2–4 °F) cooling events that recur every 1,500 years or so. The most recent cooling event was the Little Ice Age. The same cooling events are detected in sediments accumulating off Africa, but the cooling events appear to be larger: 3–8 °C (6–14 °F). δ O values from chironomid remains in

4183-402: The areas that were affected: Evidence from mountain glaciers does suggest increased glaciation in a number of widely spread regions outside Europe prior to the twentieth century, including Alaska, New Zealand and Patagonia . However, the timing of maximum glacial advances in these regions differs considerably, suggesting that they may represent largely independent regional climate changes , not

4272-553: The bay was still littered with so much floating ice that he could hide behind it in his canoe on 1 July. In the winter of 1780, New York Harbor froze, which allowed people to walk from Manhattan Island to Staten Island . The extent of mountain glaciers had been mapped by the late 19th century. In the north and the south temperate zones, Equilibrium Line Altitude (the boundaries separating zones of net accumulation from those of net ablation) were about 100 metres (330 ft) lower than they were in 1975. Southwestern Alaska experienced

4361-521: The body. Chimneys were invented to replace open fires in the centre of communal halls to allow houses with multiple rooms to have the separation of masters from servants. The Little Ice Age , by the anthropologist Brian Fagan of the University of California at Santa Barbara , describes the plight of European peasants from 1300 to 1850: famines, hypothermia , bread riots and the rise of despotic leaders brutalizing an increasingly dispirited peasantry. In

4450-517: The capability to control the weather. The Catholic Church in the Early Middle Ages argued that witches could not control the weather because they were mortals, not God, but by the mid-13th century, most people agreed with the idea that witches could control natural forces. Jewish populations were also blamed for climatic deterioration during the Little Ice Age. The Western European states experienced waves of anti-Semitism , directed against

4539-641: The coast of Northwestern Europe . Other branches include the Irminger Current and the Norwegian Current . Driven by the global thermohaline circulation , the North Atlantic Current is part of the wind-driven Gulf Stream, which goes further east and north from the North American coast across the Atlantic and into the Arctic Ocean . The North Atlantic Current, together with the Gulf Stream, have

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4628-496: The cold. The 17th-century Dutch Golden Age therefore owed much to its people's flexibility in coping with the changing climate. Historians have argued that cultural responses to the consequences of the Little Ice Age in Europe consisted of violent scapegoating . The prolonged cold, dry periods brought drought upon many European communities and resulted in poor crop growth, poor livestock survival, and increased activity of pathogens and disease vectors. Disease intensified under

4717-488: The coldest and driest periods in northern and central China (1660–1680, 1850–1880). Scholars have argued that one of the reasons for the fall of the Ming dynasty may have been the droughts and famines that were caused by the Little Ice Age. There are debates on the start date and the periods of Little Ice Age's effects. Most scholars agree on categorizing the Little Ice Age period into three distinct cold periods: in 1458–1552, 1600–1720, and 1840–1880. According to data from

4806-638: The deep convection in Labrador - Irminger Seas could collapse under certain global warming scenarios, which would then collapse the entire circulation in the North subpolar gyre . It is considered unlikely to recover even if the temperature is returned to a lower level, making it an example of a climate tipping point. This would result in rapid cooling, with implications for economic sectors, agriculture industry, water resources and energy management in Western Europe and

4895-735: The extreme weather. The colonist Ferdinando Gorges blamed the cold weather on cold ocean winds. Humphrey Gilbert tried to explain Newfoundland's icy and foggy weather by saying that the Earth drew cold vapors from the ocean and drew them west. Many others had their own theories for North America being so much colder than Europe; their observations and hypotheses offer insight on the Little Ice Age's effects in North America. An analysis of several climate proxies undertaken in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula , which

4984-478: The famine, disease, and social unrest that they were experiencing, and they blamed the innocent. Evidence from several studies indicate that increases in violent actions against marginalized groups, which were held responsible for the Little Ice Age, overlap with the years of particularly cold, dry weather. One example of the violent scapegoating occurring during the Little Ice Age was the resurgence of witchcraft trials . Oster (2004) and Behringer (1999) argue that

5073-499: The farming communities in China. According to Coching Chu 's 1972 study, the Little Ice Age from the end of the Ming dynasty to the start of the Qing dynasty (1650–1700) was one of the coldest periods in recorded Chinese history. Many major droughts during the summer months were recorded, and significant freezing events occurred during the winter months. That greatly worsened the food supply during

5162-599: The following decades, the remaining Europeans left in what seems to have been a gradual withdrawal, which was caused mainly by economic factors such as increased availability of farms in Scandinavian countries. Greenland was largely cut off by ice from 1410 to the 1720s. Between 1620 and 1740, the Yzeron Basin in the Massif Central of France witnessed a phase of decreased fluvial activity. This decline in fluvial activity

5251-424: The last 1 kyr than was apparent in the TAR.... The result is a picture of relatively cool conditions in the seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries and warmth in the eleventh and early fifteenth centuries, but the warmest conditions are apparent in the twentieth century. Given that the confidence levels surrounding all of the reconstructions are wide, virtually all reconstructions are effectively encompassed within

5340-525: The last in 1850, all of which were separated by intervals of slight warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered that the timing and the areas affected by the LIA suggested largely independent regional climate changes, rather than a globally synchronous increased glaciation. At most, there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period. Several causes have been proposed: cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in

5429-472: The late 17th century, agriculture had dropped off dramatically: "Alpine villagers lived on bread made from ground nutshells mixed with barley and oat flour." Historian Wolfgang Behringer has linked intensive witch-hunting episodes in Europe to agricultural failures during the Little Ice Age. The Frigid Golden Age , by the environmental historian Dagomar Degroot of Georgetown University , points out that some societies thrived, but others faltered during

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5518-412: The late 20th century caused the collapse of several species, particularly cod, leading to the closure of the Canadian Grand Banks fishery in 1992. Extensive glaciation took place in the area of the Grand Banks during the last glacial maximum . By approximately 13,000 years ago the majority of the ice had melted, leaving the Grand Banks exposed as several islands extending for hundreds of kilometres. It

5607-401: The line "I have walked 'cross the sand on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland." However, as the banks are underwater, it is impossible to walk across them in reality. 45°14′13″N 50°59′21.2″W  /  45.23694°N 50.989222°W  / 45.23694; -50.989222 Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in

5696-424: The lower class and women were forbidden from showing their knees. Other regulations affected the wider population, such as prohibiting dancing, sexual activities and moderating food and drink intake. In Ireland, Catholics blamed the Reformation for the bad weather. The Annals of Loch Cé , in its entry for 1588, describes a midsummer snowstorm as "a wild apple was not larger than each stone of it" and blames it on

5785-461: The main religious minority in their otherwise Christian societies. There was no direct link made between Jews and the weather; they were blamed only for indirect consequences such as disease. Outbreaks of the Black Death were often blamed on Jews. In Western European cities during the 1300s, Jewish populations were murdered to stop the spread of the plague. Rumors spread that Jews were either poisoning wells themselves, or telling lepers to poison

5874-434: The native people lent itself to high adaptability to the LIA. Both Europeans and indigenous peoples suffered excess mortality in Maine during the winter of 1607–1608, and extreme frost was meanwhile reported in the Jamestown, Virginia , settlement. Native Americans formed leagues in response to food shortages. The journal of Pierre de Troyes, Chevalier de Troyes , who led an expedition to James Bay in 1686, recorded that

5963-432: The other hand, snowy winter landscapes, particularly stormy seascapes, became artistic genres in the Dutch Golden Age painting during the coldest and stormiest decades of the Little Ice Age. Most modern scholars believe them to be full of symbolic messages and metaphors, which would have been clear to contemporary viewers. All of the famous winter landscape paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder , such as The Hunters in

6052-432: The pond being abandoned in 1963. The General Crisis of the seventeenth century in Europe was a period of inclement weather, crop failure, economic hardship, extreme intergroup violence, and high mortality linked to the Little Ice Age. Episodes of social instability track the cooling with a time lapse of up to 15 years, and many developed into armed conflicts, such as the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). The war started as

6141-452: The population of each country. In Estonia and Finland in 1696–97, losses have been estimated at a fifth and a third of the national populations, respectively." Viticulture disappeared from some northern regions, and storms caused serious flooding and loss of life. Some of them resulted in the permanent loss of large areas of land from the Danish, German, and Dutch coasts . The violinmaker Antonio Stradivari produced his instruments during

6230-445: The presence of a "wicked, heretical, bishop in Oilfinn", the Protestant Bishop of Elphin , John Lynch . William James Burroughs analyzes the depiction of winter in paintings, as does Hans Neuberger . Burroughs asserts that it occurred almost entirely from 1565 to 1665 and was associated with the climatic decline from 1550 onwards. Burroughs claims that there had been almost no depictions of winter in art, and he "hypothesizes that

6319-524: The resurgence was brought by the climatic decline. Prior to the Little Ice Age, witchcraft was considered an insignificant crime, and victims (the supposed witches) were rarely accused. But beginning in the 1380s, just as the Little Ice Age began, European populations began to link magic and weather-making. The first systematic witch hunts began in the 1430s, and by the 1480s, it was widely believed that witches should be held accountable for poor weather. Witches were blamed for direct and indirect consequences of

6408-547: The same conditions that unemployment and economic difficulties arose: prolonged cold, dry seasons. Disease and unemployment generated a lethal positive feedback loop. Although the communities had some contingency plans, such as better crop mixes, emergency grain stocks, and international food trade, they did not always prove effective. Communities often lashed out via violent crimes, including robbery and murder. Accusations of sexual offenses also increased, such as adultery , bestiality , and rape . Europeans sought explanations for

6497-413: The snow lay on the ground for many months longer than it does today." In Lisbon , Portugal, snowstorms were much more frequent than today, and one winter in the 17th century produced eight snowstorms. Many springs and summers were cold and wet but with great variability between years and groups of years. That was particularly evident during the "Grindelwald Fluctuation" (1560–1630); the rapid cooling phase

6586-538: The south and 20 Sv (20 million m/s; 710 million cu ft/s) as it crosses the Mid-Atlantic Ridge . It reaches speeds of 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph; 1.0 m/s) near the North American coast. Directed by topography, the NAC meanders heavily, but in contrast to the meanders of the Gulf Stream, the NAC meanders remain stable without breaking off into eddies. The colder parts of

6675-536: The spread of diseases. The colder weather helped the parasites brought by Europeans in mosquitoes to develop faster. That in turn led to many malaria deaths among Native Americans. In 1642, Thomas Gorges wrote that between 1637 and 1645, colonists in Maine (then part of Massachusetts) experienced horrendous weather conditions. In June 1637, temperatures were so high that numerous European settlers died; travelers were forced to travel at night to stay cool. Gorges also wrote that

6764-513: The strength of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation . Because the Little Ice Age took place during the European colonization of the Americas , it discouraged many early colonists, who had expected the climate of North America to be similar to the climate of Europe at similar latitudes. They found that North America, at least in what would become Canada and the northern United States, had hotter summers and colder winters than Europe. That effect

6853-631: The temperature drops during the Little Ice Age. Despite the lack of food production, the Wanli Emperor ordered the Jurchens to pay the same amount of tribute each year. That led to anger and sowed seeds to the rebellion against the Ming dynasty. In 1616, Jurchens established the Later Jin dynasty . Led by Hong Taiji and Nurhaci , the Later Jin dynasty moved South and achieved decisive victories in battles against

6942-517: The timing and nature of these variations are highly variable from region to region, and the notion of the Little Ice Age as a globally synchronous cold period has all but been dismissed. In China, warm-weather crops such as oranges were abandoned in Jiangxi Province , where they had been grown for centuries. Also, the two periods of most frequent typhoon strikes in Guangdong coincide with two of

7031-497: The uncertainty previously indicated in the TAR. The major differences between the various proxy reconstructions relate to the magnitude of past cool excursions, principally during the twelfth to fourteenth, seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. There is no consensus on when the Little Ice Age began, but a series of events before the known climatic minima have often been referenced. In the 13th century, pack ice began advancing southwards in

7120-438: The unusually harsh winter of 1565 inspired great artists to depict highly original images and that the decline in such paintings was a combination of the 'theme' having been fully explored and mild winters interrupting the flow of painting." Wintry scenes, which entail technical difficulties in painting, have been regularly and well handled since at least the early 15th century by artists in illuminated manuscript cycles that show

7209-636: The warm waters of the Gulf Stream here, often causing extreme foggy conditions . The mixing of these waters and the shape of the ocean bottom lifts nutrients to the surface. These conditions helped to create one of the richest fishing grounds in the world. Fish species include Atlantic cod , swordfish , haddock and capelin ; shellfish include scallop and lobster . The area also supports large colonies of seabirds such as northern gannets , shearwaters and sea ducks and various sea mammals such as seals , dolphins and whales . Overfishing in

7298-614: The warmer branch turns southward, most of the subtropical component of the Gulf Stream is diverted southward, and as a consequence, the North Atlantic is mostly supplied by subpolar waters, including a contribution from the Labrador Current recirculated into the NAC at 45°N. West of Continental Europe , it splits into two major branches. One branch goes southeast, becoming the Canary Current as it passes northwest Africa and turns southwest. The other major branch continues north along

7387-645: The wells. To escape persecution, some Jews converted to Christianity, while others migrated to the Ottoman Empire , Italy or the Holy Roman Empire , where they experienced greater toleration. Some populations blamed the cold periods and the resulting famine and disease during the Little Ice Age on a general divine displeasure. Particular groups took the brunt of the burden in attempts to cure it. In Germany, regulations were imposed upon activities such as gambling and drinking , which disproportionately affected

7476-751: The winter of 1641–1642 was “piercingly Intolerable” and that no Englishman or Native American had ever seen anything like it. He also stated that the Massachusetts Bay had frozen as far as one could see, and that horse carriages now roamed where ships used to be. He stated that the summers of 1638 and 1639 were very short, cold, and wet, which compounded food scarcity for a few years. To make matters worse, creatures like caterpillars and pigeons fed on crops and devastated harvests. Every year about which Gorges wrote featured unusual weather patterns, including high precipitation, drought, and extreme cold or heat. Many inhabitants of North America had their own theories about

7565-478: Was aggravated by the Little Ice Age, and unpreparedness led to the collapse of many early European settlements in North America. Historians agree that when colonists settled at Jamestown , it was one of the coldest periods in the last 1000 years. Drought was also a problem in North America during the Little Ice Age, and the settlers arrived in Roanoke during the largest drought of the past 800 years. Tree ring studies by

7654-607: Was associated with more erratic weather, including increased storminess, unseasonal snowstorms, and droughts. Crop practices throughout Europe had to be altered to adapt to the shortened and less reliable growing season, and there were many years of scarcity and famine . One was the Great Famine of 1315–1317 , but that may have been before the Little Ice Age. According to Elizabeth Ewan and Janay Nugent, "Famines in France 1693–94, Norway 1695–96 and Sweden 1696–97 claimed roughly 10 percent of

7743-525: Was born. The first River Thames frost fair was in 1608 and the last in 1814. Changes to the bridges and the addition of the Thames Embankment have affected the river's flow and depth and greatly diminish the possibility of further freezes. In 1658, a Swedish army marched through Denmark and across the Great Belt to attack Copenhagen from the west. The winter of 1794–1795 was particularly harsh:

7832-499: Was closed in 1993. Canada 's EEZ currently covers the majority of the Grand Banks except for the lucrative "nose" (eastern extremity, near the Flemish Cap ) and "tail" (southern extremity) of the fishing bank . The 1783 Treaty of Paris gave the United States shared rights to fish in these waters, but that section of the Treaty is no longer in force. The exclusive economic zone of the French territory Saint Pierre and Miquelon occupies

7921-510: Was linked by its authors to Maya and Aztec chronicles relating periods of cold and drought, supports the existence of the Little Ice Age in the region. Another study conducted in several sites in Mesoamerica like Los Tuxtlas and Lake Pompal in Veracruz, Mexico show a decrease in human activity in the area during the Little Ice Age. That was proven by studying charcoal fragments and the amount of maize pollen taken from sedimentary samples by using

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