Climatic Change DOI 10.1007/s10584-009-9650-y Five centuries of Stockholm winter/spring temperatures reconstructed from documentary evidence and instrumental observations Lotta Leijonhufvud · Rob Wilson · Anders Moberg · Johan Söderberg · Dag Retsö · Ulrica Söderlind Received: 14 July 2008 / Accepted: 14 July 2009 © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract Historical documentary sources, reflecting different port activities in Stockholm, are utilised to derive a 500-year winter/spring temperature reconstruc- tion for the region. These documentary sources reflect sea ice conditions in the harbour inlet and those series that overlap with the instrumental data correlate well with winter/spring temperatures. By refining dendroclimatological methods, the time-series were composited to a mean series and calibrated (1756–1841; r2 = 66%) against Stockholm January–April temperatures. Strong verification was L. Leijonhufvud (B) · A. Moberg Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden e-mail:
[email protected] A. Moberg e-mail:
[email protected] R. Wilson School of Geography & Geosciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, FIFE, KY16 9AL, Scotland, UK e-mail:
[email protected] J. Söderberg · D. Retsö · U. Söderlind Department of Economic History, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden J. Söderberg e-mail:
[email protected] D. Retsö e-mail:
[email protected] U. Söderlind e-mail:
[email protected] Climatic Change confirmed (1842–1892; r2 = 60%; RE/CE = 0.55). By including the instrumental data, the quantified (QUAN) reconstruction indicates that recent two decades have been the warmest period for the last 500 years.