Researching climate change through ancient documents

Temperatures in the city of Baghdad range from 2 degrees Celsius in the winter and up to 45 degrees Celsius in the summer. However, the ancient Arabic writings revealed that the city had experienced periods of extreme weather, even "frozen" about 1,000 years ago.

Spanish researchers from Extremadura University after referring to ancient documents, found heavy snowfall in this area in the years 908, 944, 1007, even the rivers once frozen. These are typical extreme phenomena because in modern times, snow only fell in Baghdad once in 2008.

The sudden cold period was confirmed when the temperature dropped
in the 10th century before the warm period of the Middle Ages

According to the Daily Mail , the clue about the Baghdad weather pattern comes from writers' writings like Al-Tabari (913), Lbn al-Athir (1233) and al-Suyuti (1505), mentioned climate problem through chronological order. Dr. Fernando Dominguez-Castro, the leader of the research team, wrote in Weather magazine: 'Information from ancient sources mainly refers to harsh events that have a large impact on society such as drought, flood. There are also references to other rare phenomena such as hail, the freezing of rivers'.

Signs of a sudden cold period were confirmed when the temperature dropped in the 10th century before the warm Middle Ages. Researchers believe that a temperature drop in July 920 is related to the consequences of an eruption volcano, but more data is needed to confirm this idea. The study provides valuable information for scientists in the process of understanding climate change over the long term and adding context to modern weather models.'The ancient Arabic source of documents is a very useful tool for searching, describing evidence to support the theories made by climate models,' Dominguez-Castro said.