Europe Central Europe In 2021, historian
Christian Pfister and climatologist
Heinz Wanner published a reconstruction of seasonal temperatures in Central Europe using temperature indices (
historical climatology) based on documentary data. After CE 1500, the reconstruction is based on an article by Czech geographer Petr Dobrovolny, which includes monthly, seasonal and annual temperature estimates for Germany, Switzerland and the Czech lands based on temperature indices up to 1759 and subsequent temperature measurements.
Winter Winters from 1000 to 1999 were generally cold until the end of the 19th century. A reconstruction of winter temperatures on a year-by-year basis from 1170 onward reveals a different picture of the Little Ice Age. The 13th century winters were predominantly cold only in the first third of the century, as well as between 1270 and 1280. During the 14th century, cold winters were the norm, except for the 37 years between 1340 and 1377. The 15th century was almost entirely cold, except for the 1470s. Until 1520, winters remained mostly cold. The 16th century; cold and warm seasons were balanced until 1540. After that, cold winters became the norm, with particularly severe winters occurring between 1565 and 1573 and again from 1587 to 1595. Overall, winter seasons were around 0.9 °C (±0.69 °C) below the 1961–1990 average. The 17th century, temperatures were 1.2°C (±0.69°C) below average. The 18th century, temperatures were 0.9°C (±0.69°C) below average. The 19th century, temperatures were 1.2°C below average based on thermometric measurements. The 20th century temperatures were 0.2°C below the 1961–1990 average, with positive values dominating after 1950. Conclusion: The duration and intensity of cold spells in winter have increased since the 14th century, peaking in the 15th, 17th, and 19th centuries. The gradual decline in winter temperatures until the early 20th century, compared to the 1961–1990 measurement period, was one manifestation of the end of the Little Ice Age in Central Europe due to Global Warming. Cold summers predominated in the 15th century. After a relatively warm period until 1424, the trend reversed. Seven cold summers occurred in the 1450s alone, presumably in connection with the eruption of a tropical volcano (
Kuwae). Also notable is the sequence of three hot summers between 1471 and 1473. In the 16th century, estimated temperatures were 0.2 °C (±0.49 °C) below the 1961–1990 average. Due to ten hot and dry summers, temperatures from 1534 to 1567 were 0.3 °C (±0.49 °C) above average, causing the glaciers to melt back somewhat. Subsequently, temperatures fell in conjunction with high summer precipitation, reaching a low point in the 1590s and triggering the widespread advance of Alpine glaciers. In the 17th century, estimated temperatures were 0.2°C (±0.49°C) lower than the average for the period 1961–1990. Until around 1630 and from 1670 to 1685, extremes of cold and warmth dominated, with warm summers occurring mid-century. After 1675, temperatures fell by an average of 0.6 °C until the turn of the century. Cod, which is sensitive to cold temperatures, disappeared from the waters around the Faroe Islands. The English climatologist and historian
Hubert Lamb concluded that cold Arctic water had spread southwards. Warm summers prevailed in the 18th century, particularly between 1718 and 1731. Temperatures remained relatively low between 1760 and 1779, triggering an advance of the Alpine glaciers. Cold summers prevailed in the 19th century. Average temperatures in Central Europe were 0.6 °C below the 1961–1990 average. The first half of the century was predominantly cold, leading to glacier advances. In the 20th century, summers in Central Europe remained cold until 1927. Temperatures then rose until the warm decade from 1943 to 1952, after which they fluctuated around the 1901–1960 average. The long-term process of glacier retreat began with the slow man-made warming of the late 19th century and accelerated with the more rapid warming that occurred after 1990.
Regional studies Drangajökull, Iceland's northernmost glacier, reached its maximum extent during the LIA around 1665 or 1765. frozen, 3 January 1880. At the end of the 19th century, the climate was still colder than today. 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 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. , 1658|left In early 1658, a Swedish army took advantage of the extremely cold winter to
march through Denmark and across the
Great Belt to attack
Copenhagen from the west. 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 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 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 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 1825, shortly before the minimum, by Bartholomeus Johannes van Hove In his 1995 book, the early climatologist
Hubert Lamb said that in many years, "snowfall was much heavier than recorded before or since, and 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 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 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. 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 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 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.
Cultural responses , 1684 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 the same conditions that unemployment and economic difficulties arose: prolonged cold, dry seasons. Disease and unemployment generated a lethal positive feedback loop.
Depictions of winter in European painting '', attributed to
Henry Raeburn, 1790s 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 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 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 , 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 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. '' by
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565 All of the famous winter landscape paintings by
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, such as
The Hunters in 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". ) 1614 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 the pond being abandoned in 1963.
General Crisis of the seventeenth century 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 a war of succession to the Bohemian throne. Animosity between
Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire (most of which is now in Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic) 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%.
North America Early European explorers and settlers of North America reported exceptionally severe winters. In southwestern Alaska, preexisting flexibility in foraging habits among 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. 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 lower than they were in 1975. 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 . In
Chesapeake Bay,
Maryland, large temperature excursions were possibly related to changes in 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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.
Mesoamerica An analysis of several
climate proxies undertaken in Mexico's
Yucatán Peninsula, which 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. Cold and drought led to a terrible famine in the Aztec Empire in 1454 and the Chilam Balam Book of Mani mentions a decrease in temperature between 1441 and 1460 during the final years of
Mayapan. 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 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.
Atlantic Ocean 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 the amount of coarse sediment grains deposited from icebergs melting in the now-open ocean, indicating a series of 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: . δ18O values from
chironomid remains in the Azores reflect the cooling of the LIA.
Asia 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: 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 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 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 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 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 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 the Ming dynasty's military, such as during the 1618
Battle of Fushun. After the earlier defeats and the death of the Wanli Emperor, the
Chongzhen Emperor took over China and continued the war effort. From 1632 to 1641, the Little Ice Age began to cause drastic climate changes in the Ming dynasty's territories. For example, rainfall in the
Huabei region dropped by 11% to 47% from the historical average. Meanwhile, the
Shaanbei region, along the
Yellow River experienced six major floods, which ruined cities such as
Yan'an. The climate factored heavily in weakening the government's control over China and accelerated the fall of the Ming dynasty. In 1644,
Li Zicheng led the Later Jin's forces into Beijing, overthrew the Ming dynasty, and established the short-lived
Shun dynasty which were soon overthrown by
Qing dynasty. During the early years of the Qing dynasty, the Little Ice Age continued to have a significant impact on Chinese society. During the rule of the
Kangxi Emperor (1661–1722), most Qing territories were still much colder than the historical average. However, the Kangxi Emperor pushed reforms and managed to increase the socio-economic recovery from the natural disasters. He benefited partly from the peacefulness of the early Qing dynasty. That essentially marked the end of the Little Ice Age in China and led to a more prosperous era of Chinese history that is known as the
High Qing era. In the
Himalayas, the general assumption is that the cooling events were synchronous with those in Europe during the Little Ice Age because of the characteristics of moraines. However, applications of
Quaternary dating methods such as
surface exposure dating have shown that glacial maxima occurred between 1300 and 1600, slightly earlier than the recorded coldest period in the Northern Hemisphere. Many large Himalayan glacial debris fields have remained close to their limits since the Little Ice Age. The Himalayas also experienced an increase in snowfall at higher altitudes, which results in a southward shift in the Indian summer monsoon and an increase in precipitation. Overall, the increase in winter precipitation may have caused some glacial movements. Since the end of the Little Ice Age, there has been an almost continuous retreat of glaciers to present. The region in
Balochistan became colder, and its native
Baloch people started a
mass migration and began to settle along the
Indus River in
Sindh and
Punjab. On
Rebun Island, a rapid cooling event occurred around 390 BP (as measured from
pollen samples in 2018) amidst a longer-term trend of cooling; this cooling event marked the onset of the Little Ice Age in the region.
Africa The Little Ice Age influenced the African climate from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Despite variances throughout the continent, a general trend of declining temperatures in Africa led to an average cooling of 1 °C. In Ethiopia and North Africa, permanent snow was reported on mountain peaks at levels at which it does not occur today.
Timbuktu, an important city on the trans-
Saharan caravan route, was flooded at least 13 times by the
Niger River, but there are no records of similar flooding before or since that time. A novel 3,000-year temperature reconstruction method, based on the rate of
stalagmite growth in a cold cave in South Africa, further suggests a cold period from 1500 to 1800 "characterizing the South African Little Ice Age". The δ18O stalagmite record temperature reconstruction over a 350-year period (1690–1740) suggests that South Africa may have been the coldest region in Africa and have cooled by as much as 1.4 °C in summer. Also, the solar magnetic and Niño-Southern Oscillation cycles may have been key drivers of climate variability in the subtropical region.
Periglacial features in the eastern
Lesotho Highlands might have been
reactivated by the Little Ice Age. Another archaeological reconstruction of Southern Africa reveals the rise of
Great Zimbabwe because of ecological advantages from the increased rainfall over other competitor societies, such as the
Mapungubwe. Pollen records derived from
rock hyrax middens in the
Cederberg Mountains of southwestern South Africa indicate an increase in humidity in the region at the start of the LIA. Other than temperature variability, data from equatorial East Africa suggest impacts to the hydrologic cycle in the late 1700s. Historical data reconstructions from ten major African lakes indicate that an episode of *drought and desiccation" occurred throughout East Africa. The period showed drastic reductions in the depths of lakes, which were transformed into desiccated puddles. It is very likely that locals could cross Lake Chad, among others, and that bouts of "intense droughts were ubiquitous". That indicates local societies were probably launched into long migrations and warfare with neighboring tribes, since agriculture was made virtually useless by the dry soil.
Antarctica Kreutz et al. (1997) compared results from studies of West Antarctic ice cores with the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two
GISP2; they suggested a synchronous global cooling. An
ocean sediment core from the eastern Bransfield Basin in the
Antarctic Peninsula shows centennial events, which the authors link to the Little Ice Age and to the Medieval Warm Period. The authors note that "other unexplained climatic events comparable in duration and amplitude to the LIA and MWP events also appear". The
Siple Dome (SD) had a climate event with an onset time that is coincident with that of the Little Ice Age in the North Atlantic, based on a correlation with the GISP2 record. The Little Ice Age is the most dramatic climate event in the SD Holocene glaciochemical record. The Siple Dome ice core also contained its highest rate of melt layers (up to 8%) between 1550 and 1700, most likely because of warm summers.
Law Dome ice cores show lower levels of CO2 mixing ratios from 1550 to 1800, which Etheridge and Steele believe to be "probably as a result of colder global climate". Sediment cores in Bransfield Basin, Antarctic Peninsula, have neoglacial indicators by
diatom and sea-ice taxa variations during the Little Ice Age. Stable isotope records from the Mount Erebus Saddle ice core site suggests that the Ross Sea region experienced average temperatures 1.6 ± 1.4 °C cooler during the Little Ice Age than the last 150 years.
Australia and New Zealand Due to its location in the Southern Hemisphere, Australia did not experience a regional cooling like that of Europe or North America. Instead, the Australian Little Ice Age was characterized by humid, rainy climates, which were followed by drying and
aridification in the 19th century. As studied by Tibby et al. (2018), lake records from
Victoria,
New South Wales, and
Queensland suggest that conditions in the east and the south-east of Australia were wet and unusually cool from the 16th to the early 19th centuries. That corresponds with the "peak" of the global Little Ice Age from 1594 to 1722. For example, North Stradbroke Island's Swallow Lagoon data reveals a period of persistent wetness from 1500 to 1850 CE (exceeding 300 mm above average), followed by a significant decrease in rainfall after 1891. The mid-19th century marked a notable change to eastern Australia's rainfall and humidity patterns. Tibby et al. (2018) note that in eastern Australia, the paleoclimatic changes of the Little Ice Age in the late 1800s coincided with the agricultural changes resulting from European colonization. After the 1788 establishment of British colonies in the Australia, which were concentrated primarily in the eastern regions and cities like Sydney and later Melbourne and Brisbane, the British introduced new agricultural practices like
pastoralism. Furthermore, as argued by Gordan et al. (2003), such land and vegetation clearance in Australia resulted in a 10% reduction in the transport of water vapor to the atmosphere. That occurred in Western Australia as well, where 19th-century land clearing resulted in reduced rainfall over the region. By 1850 to 1890, those human agricultural practices, which were concentrated in eastern Australia, had most likely amplified the drying and aridification that marked the end of the Little Ice Age. In the north, evidence suggests fairly dry conditions, but coral cores from the
Great Barrier Reef show rainfall similar to today but with less variability. A study that analyzed isotopes in Great Barrier Reef corals suggested that increased water vapor transport from the southern tropical oceans to the poles contributed to the Little Ice Age.
Borehole reconstructions from Australia suggest that over the last 500 years, the 17th century was the coldest on the continent. The borehole temperature reconstruction method further indicates that the warming of Australia over the past five centuries is only around half that of the warming experienced by the Northern Hemisphere, which further proves that Australia did not reach the same depths of cooling as the continents in the north. On the west coast of the
Southern Alps of New Zealand, the
Franz Josef Glacier advanced rapidly during the Little Ice Age and reached its maximum extent in the early 18th century. That was one of the few cases of a glacier thrusting into a
rainforest. Evidence suggests, corroborated by tree ring proxy data, that the glacier contributed to a temperature anomaly over the course of the Little Ice Age in New Zealand. Based on dating of a yellow-green lichen of the
Rhizocarpon subgenus, the
Mueller Glacier, on the eastern flank of the Southern Alps within
Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park, is considered to have been at its maximum extent between 1725 and 1730.
Pacific islands Sea-level data for the
Pacific islands suggest that sea level in the region fell, possibly in two stages, between 1270 and 1475. That was associated with a 1.5 °C fall in temperature, as determined from oxygen-isotope analysis, and an observed increase in the frequency of
El Niño. Tropical Pacific
coral records indicate the most frequent and intense
El Niño–Southern Oscillation activity was in the mid-17th century.
Foraminiferal 18 O records indicate that the
Indo-Pacific Warm Pool was warm and saline between 1000 and 1400, with temperatures approximating current conditions, but that it cooled from 1400 onwards and reached its lowest temperatures in 1700. That is consistent with the transition from the mid-
Holocene warming to the Little Ice Age. The nearby southwestern Pacific, however, experienced warmer-than-average conditions over the course of the Little Ice Age, which is thought to be from the increased trade winds, which increased the evaporation and the salinity in the region. The dramatic temperature differences between the higher latitudes and the equator are thought to have resulted in drier conditions in the subtropics. Independent multiproxy analyses of Raraku Lake (sedimentology, mineralology, organic and inorganic geochemistry, etc.) indicate that
Easter Island was subject to two phases of arid climate that led to drought. The first occurred between 500 and 1200, and the second occurring during the Little Ice Age from 1570 to 1720. In between both arid phases, the island enjoyed a humid period from 1200 to 1570. That coincided with the peak of the
Rapa Nui civilization.
South America Tree-ring data from
Patagonia show cold episodes from 1270 and 1380 and from 1520 to 1670, during the events in the Northern Hemisphere. Eight sediment cores taken from
Puyehue Lake have been interpreted as showing a humid period from 1470 to 1700, which the authors describe as a regional marker of the onset of the Little Ice Age. A 2009 paper details cooler and wetter conditions in southeastern South America between 1550 and 1800 by citing evidence obtained via several proxies and models.
18O records from three Andean ice cores show a cool period from 1600 to 1800. Although it is only anecdotal evidence, the
Antonio de Vea expedition entered
San Rafael Lake in 1675 through Río Témpanos (Spanish for "Ice Floe River"). The Spanish mentioned no
ice floe but stated that the
San Rafael Glacier did not reach far into the lagoon. In 1766, another expedition noticed that the glacier reached the lagoon and
calved into large
icebergs.
Hans Steffen visited the area in 1898 and noticed that the glacier penetrated far into the lagoon. Such historical records indicate a general cooling in the area between 1675 and 1898: "The recognition of the LIA in northern Patagonia, through the use of documentary sources, provides important, independent evidence for the occurrence of this phenomenon in the region." As of 2001, the borders of the glacier had significantly retreated from those of 1675. It has been proposed that the Little Ice Age, locally lasting from the 17th to the 19th centuries, may have decreased the productivity of marine ecosystems and the navigability of the
Patagonian fjords and channels, being thus detrimental to the sea-faring
Kawésqar.
Middle East The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and most powerful empires in the world during this period, with territories in three continents and a range of climates and ecosystems. The Little Ice Age affected its economy, society, and culture from the early 14th century, as it rose from a small group of soldiers to a major world power, until the mid-19th century, with its most intense phase between the 16th and 17th centuries. The effects of the Little Ice Age on the Ottoman Empire were significant, leading to changes in agricultural practices, increased food prices, and social unrest. Each ancient Middle Eastern empire had a primary food-growing region: the Byzantines had Anatolia and Syria; the Abbasids had the lower Tigris-Euphrates region, Khurasan, and Bukhara; and the Ottomans had Egypt. The Ottoman Empire had grown and distributed sufficient grain along the Danube, the Black Sea, and the Nile. The cooling climate disrupted agriculture, shortening the growing season and decreasing crop yields, and led to food shortages and famines. This was exacerbated by extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, and storms, which further reduced crop yields. In 1265, 1277 and 1297–1298, Byzantine sources describe extreme cold, then harsh winters in 1298-1299 throughout the Middle East. This was followed by a drought in Asia Minor during 1302-1304, along with flooding on the Sangarious River in summer 1302. Due to the
expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the late 16th century, the population of the empire reached around 30 million people, which led to a shortage of land and an increase in tax. The second half of the 16th century saw rising prices in both the Middle East and Europe. The large population and lack of supplies created a strain on the Ottoman government. During the 1590s, a wave of extremely cold winters began, and the longest drought in the Middle East in six centuries marked the beginning of the Little Ice Age. Settled peasants were unwilling or unable to leave their traditional lands during the climate shifts, and often rose into revolt against the established authorities, unlike nomads who could easily move.) The rebellion became the longest-lasting internal challenge to state power in the Ottoman Empire's six centuries of existence. The demand of the rebels was not to overthrow the Ottoman government but to replace certain regional governors. The Ottoman Empire did not fully recover from the Little Ice Age for around a hundred years, and were left with a large population loss. ==Central England temperature series==