Historical Climate Variability and Impacts in North America
Climatologists with an eye on the past have any number of sources for their work, from personal diaries to weather station reports. Piecing together the trajectory of a weather event can thus be a painstaking process taking years and involving real detect
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Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux · Cary J. Mock Editors
Historical Climate Variability and Impacts in North America
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Editors Dr. Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux University of Vermont Department of Geography 94 University Place Burlington VT 05405-0114 USA [email protected]
Dr. Cary J. Mock University of South Carolina Department of Geography Columbia SC 29208 USA [email protected]
ISBN 978-90-481-2827-3 e-ISBN 978-90-481-2828-0 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-2828-0 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009933459 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Cover illustration: (left) Rooftop Instruments on the Alaska Building, Seattle, Washington, between 1905 and 1911 (courtesy of Pemco Webster & Stevens Collection, Museum of History & Industry); (center) The logbook from the HMS Racoon in 1813, photo from The National Archives, U.K. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
When we decided to create Historical Climate Variability and Impacts in North America, we had several goals in mind. The first was to address a gap in the literature about the methods for and the value of using documentary data such as diaries and ships’ logs in augmenting and enriching the instrumental record dating back to the 1600s in North America. Another key goal was to bring together communities of scholars working on central problems related to historical climate variability, but spanning the range of modern to paleo perspectives within climatology. As such, this book is unique in its contributions from synoptic, applied, dynamic and historical climatologists, as well as by historians and museum archivists. Finally, we wanted to produce a volume that would be instrumental in the formation of the next generation of historical climatologists. As such, this book is designed to be used in upper-level undergraduate or graduate level courses or by researchers in general. This book complements existing monographs such as Improved Understanding of Past Climatic Variability from Early Daily European Instrumental Sources, edited by Dario Camuffo and Phil Jones and published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, which focuses on the use of early temperature records, measurement errors and trends in extreme temperatures. It extends such works by using both the instrumental record and documentary data from the last 200–400 years to paint a portrait of climate variability in North America through a variety of lenses. It differs from similar monographs in that there is less emphasis on individual modes of climate variability or teleconnections, and more on centur
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