One of the limits of climatology is that we only have about a hundred
years of scientifically gathered weather data, and we know that it
doesn't give us the full story. Paleoclimatologists find ways to figure
out what the weather was like back before we had thermometers, rain
gauges, and written records. The natural world has recorded its own
stories in tree rings, lake sediments, ice, cave deposits, and fossils,
and paleoclimatologists can put that data together to assemble thousands
of years of climate history.
The findings of paleoclimatology are important, because they show that
past droughts have been more severe and have lasted even longer than the
Dust Bowl in the 1930s or drought in the 1950s by centuries, in some
cases. Paleoclimatology helps us understand the full range of natural
variability.
Resources from NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides many
excellent resources on Paleoclimatology and houses the World Data Center
for Paleoclimatology at its National Climatic Data Center. Starting
points include:
-
Paleoclimate Drought Resources - An excellent collection of links to what paleoclimatology tells us about
drought, from the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology.
-
NOAA Paleoclimatology - The home page for the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology, which
provides excellent information about the different types of data that
paleoclimatologists use.
Highlights from the collection at the World Data Center for
Paleoclimatology include:
-
The Palmer Drought Severity Index Reconstructed from Tree Rings, developed by Dr. Edward R.
Cook of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and colleagues.
-
Long-Term Aridity Changes in the Western United States, an
abstract of a key piece of research that appeared in Science magazine,
with citation information and related links. This research highlights
the fact that present droughts pale in comparison to what happened
during the Middle Ages.
Other Resources
