The Polish Climate in the European Context: An Historical Overview

Reconstruction of the climate variability of the past 500 years is a topic of great scientific interest not only in global terms, but also at regional and local levels. This period is interesting on account of the increasing influence of anthropogenic forcing and its overlap with natural factors. The Polish Climate in the European Context: An Historical Overview summarises the results of research into climate variability based on a combination of instrumental, documentary, dendrochronological and borehole data from Poland.

The first part of the book provides a Central European perspective of research in these fields, which forms the general background for a presentation of the state of the art of climatic change studies in Poland during the past 500 years (Part 2). This is followed by a selection of papers dealing mainly with different aspects of climate variability in Poland and Central Europe (Part 3).

"This book is a valuable tool integrating Polish, Central and Eastern European climate research into the global context. It is, as such, a must for climate researchers worldwide." (Gaston Demarée, Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium)

"This volume marks a significant step forward in our understanding of European climatic history." (Christian Pfister, University of Bern)

Preface.- Introduction.- List of contributors.- Part 1 The European Background.- 1.1 Climate Change in Poland in the Past Centuries and its Relationship to European Climate: Evidence From Reconstructions and Coupled Climate Models.- 1.2 Historical Climate in Central Europe During the Last 500 Years.- 1.3 Climatic Variations in the East European Plain During the Last Millennium: state-of-the-art.- 1.4 The Climate of Europe in Recent Centuries in the Context of the Climate of Mid to High Latitude Northern Hemisphere from Borehole Temperature Logs.- Part 2 The Climate of Poland in Recent Centuries: A Synthesis of Current Knowledge .-2.1 Instrumental Observations - 2.2 Documentary Evidence.- 2.3 Dendrochronological Data.- 2.4 Geophysical Data .- 2.5 Summary and Concluding Remarks.- Part 3 The Climate of Poland and Europe in Recent Centuries: New Findings Results.- 3.1 Long-term Changes of Bioclimatic Conditions in Cracow (Poland).- 3.2 Climate Warming in the Czech Republic: Evidence Stored in Shallow Subsurface .- 3.3 History of the Gdansk Pre-instrumental and Instrumental Record of Meteorological Observations and Analysis of Selected Air Pressure Observations..- 3.4 A Composite Reconstruction of the Russian Arctic Climate Back to A.D. 1435.- 3.5 Growth/Climate Relationships in Tree-ring Widths of Picea abies in Lithuania and Poland.- 3.6 Multi-annual Variability of Cloudiness and Sunshine Duration in Cracow Between 1826 and 2005.- 3.7 Changes in Sea Surface Temperature of the South Baltic Sea (1854-2005).- 3.8 Ground Surface Temperature Histories Reconstructed from Boreholes in Poland: Implications for Spatial Variability.- 3.9 Precipitation Extremes and Disastrous Floods in Central Europe in July 1897.- 3.10 Summer Temperatures in the Tatra Mountains during the Maunder Minimum (1645-1715).- 3.11 Seasonal Differentiation of Maximum and Minimum Air Temperature in Cracow and Prague in the Period 1836-2007.- 3.12 Climate Changes in the Central and North-eastern Parts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1656 to 1685.- 3.13 The Climate of Polish Lands as Viewed by Chroniclers, Writers and Scientists.- 3.14 Observations and Measurements of Precipitation in the Polish Province of Galicia in the Nineteenth Century.- 3.15 Variability of the European Climate on the Basis of Differentiation of Indicators of Continentalism.- 3.16 The First One Hundred Years (1791-1890) of the Wroclaw Air Temperature.- Index.