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Climatic extremes in Portugal in the 1780s based on documentary and instrumental records

2015; Inter-Research Science Center; Volume: 66; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3354/cr01337

1616-1572

Marcelo Fragoso, Daiane Maria da Silva Marques, João A. Santos, María João Alcoforado, Inês Amorim, João Carlos Garcia, Luís Pedro Silva, MdF Nunes,

Climate variability and models

CR Climate Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials CR 66:141-159 (2015) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01337 Climatic extremes in Portugal in the 1780s based on documentary and instrumental records Marcelo Fragoso1,*, David Marques1, João A. Santos2, Maria João Alcoforado1, Inês Amorim3, João Carlos Garcia4, Luís Silva3, Maria de Fátima Nunes5 1Centre for Geographical Studies, Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning (IGOT-UL), Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal 2Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences, CITAB, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, (UTAD), Vila Real, Portugal 3Transdisciplinary Research Centre 'Culture, Space and Memory'(CITCEM), Faculdade de Letras, Universidade do Porto, Portugal 4Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia (CIUHCT), Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal 5Universidade de Évora, (IHC-CEHFCi.UE), Évora, Portugal *Corresponding author: mfragoso@campus.ul.pt ABSTRACT: The final stage of the Little Ice Age in Europe was characterised by strong climatic variability. New documentary sources containing information referring to weather and climate are used in this study to reconstruct and to describe climate conditions in Portugal during the 18th century, mainly in the 1780s. Indexation of documentary data concerning hydric and thermal conditions was based on C. Pfister's methodology and early instrumental data (1780s and 1790s) were used to verify the reconstruction. Precipitation and temperature were highly variable throughout the 18th century: an alternation of extremely hot to extremely cold months was found. Very cold years occurred mostly in the first 2 decades of the 18th century, but several other cold winters were also detected. Precipitation information is far more frequent than for temperature, and allowed yearly and seasonal indexations. The highest variability was detected in the 1730s and the 1780s. The early 1780s were very dry: during the winter and spring of 1781 and the spring of 1782 several drought episodes occurred, as confirmed by 'pro-pluvia' rogations. In contrast, heavy precipitation prevailed from 1784 onwards. The year 1786 was the rainiest in Portugal, triggering floods in northwestern and central Portugal. The year of 1788 was extremely wet and rainfall caused floods along the largest rivers: Douro, Mondego and Tagus. A storm that struck Northwestern Iberia between 23 and 24 February 1788 is analysed in detail. KEY WORDS: Climate variability · Little Ice Age · Extreme events · Storm · Portugal Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Fragoso M, Marques D, Santos JA, Alcoforado MJ and others (2015) Climatic extremes in Portugal in the 1780s based on documentary and instrumental records. Clim Res 66:141-159. https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01337 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in CR Vol. 66, No. 2. Online publication date: October 20, 2015 Print ISSN: 0936-577X; Online ISSN: 1616-1572 Copyright © 2015 Inter-Research.