Climate of the Past www.clim-past.net 1814-9324 1814-9332 2 2 2006 10.5194/cp-2-99-2006 http://www.clim-past.net/2/99/2006/ http://www.clim-past.net/2/99/2006/cp-2-99-2006.html http://www.clim-past.net/2/99/2006/cp-2-99-2006.pdf 99 113 2006-09-19 The origin of the European "Medieval Warm Period" H. Goosse hgs@astr.ucl.ac.be O. Arzel J. Luterbacher M. E. Mann H. Renssen N. Riedwyl A. Timmermann E. Xoplaki H. Wanner Institut d'Astronomie et de Géophysique G. Lemaître, Université catholique de Louvain, 2 Chemin du Cyclotron, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium Institute of Geography, Climatology and Meteorology and NCCR Climate, University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 12, 3012 Bern, Switzerland Department of Meteorology and Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI), Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA16 802-5013, USA Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands IPRC, SOEST, University of Hawaii, 2525 Correa Road, Honolulu, HI 96 822, USA Proxy records and results of a three dimensional climate model show that European summer temperatures roughly a millennium ago were comparable to those of the last 25 years of the 20th century, supporting the existence of a summer "Medieval Warm Period" in Europe. Those two relatively mild periods were separated by a rather cold era, often referred to as the "Little Ice Age". Our modelling results suggest that the warm summer conditions during the early second millennium compared to the climate background state of the 13th–18th century are due to a large extent to the long term cooling induced by changes in land-use in Europe. During the last 200 years, the effect of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, which was partly levelled off by that of sulphate aerosols, has dominated the climate history over Europe in summer. This induces a clear warming during the last 200 years, allowing summer temperature during the last 25 years to reach back the values simulated for the early second millennium. Volcanic and solar forcing plays a weaker role in this comparison between the last 25 years of the 20th century and the early second millennium. 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