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The ‘Little Ice Age’ glacial expansion in western Scandinavia: summer temperature or winter precipitation?

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Abstract

Reconstructing the temporal and spatial climate development on a seasonal basis during the last few centuries, including the ‘Little Ice Age’, may help us better understand modern-day interplay between natural and anthropogenic climate variability. The conventional view of the climate development during the last millennium has been that it followed a sequence of a Medieval Warm Period, a cool ‘Little Ice Age’ and a warming during the later part of the 19th century and in particular during the late 20th/early 21st centuries. However, recent research has challenged this rather simple sequence of climate development. Up to the present, it has been considered most likely that the ‘Little Ice Age’ glacial expansion in western Scandinavia was due to lower summer temperatures. Data presented here, however, indicate that the main cause of the early 18th century glacial advance in western Scandinavia was mild and humid winters associated with increased precipitation and high snowfall on the glaciers.

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Acknowledgements

The pine stump in the glacier foreland of Nigardsbreen was found by Frank Smedgård, who is thanked for making the stump available for radiocarbon dating. Two anonymous referees are thanked for their comments and suggestions of how to improve the manuscript. Eystein Jansen is thanked for commenting on the final version of the manuscript. This is publication no. A175 from the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, Allégt. 41, 5007, Bergen, Norway

    A. Nesje

  2. Department of Geography, University of Bergen, Fosswinckelsgt. 6, 5007, Bergen, Norway

    S. O. Dahl

  3. The Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Allégt. 55, 5007, Bergen, Norway

    A. Nesje & S. O. Dahl

  4. Department of Biology, NTNU, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    T. Thun

  5. Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Box 43 Blindern, 0313, Oslo, Norway

    Ø. Nordli

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  1. A. Nesje
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Nesje, A., Dahl, S.O., Thun, T. et al. The ‘Little Ice Age’ glacial expansion in western Scandinavia: summer temperature or winter precipitation?. Clim Dyn 30, 789–801 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-007-0324-z

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