Die kalte Sonne: Floods in northern Italy occurred preferentially at times of low solar activity

Vannière, B., Magny, M., Joannin, S., Simonneau, A., Wirth, S. B., Hamann, Y., Chapron, E., Gilli, A., Desmet, M., and Anselmetti, F. S.: Orbital changes, variation in solar activity and increased anthropogenic activities: controls on the Holocene flood frequency in the Lake Ledro area, Northern Italy, Clim. Past Discuss., 8, 4701-4744, doi:10.5194/cpd-8-4701-2012, 2012.

This is a large and densely written paper so I will just give the link to Climate Past, an open access journal. You will probably need to take the discussion version, PDF.

I note a possible linkage of flood episodes to cold times… could that be what we are starting to see today?

Some time ago I spent some time looking at historic flood record in antiquity, particularly in the far east, wondering about paired global effects, not a new idea. A conclusion I reached but didn’t quite get enough to have the confidence to say much was a raining out after hot times.

h/t to Die kalte Sonne where if you click top right on their web site the article can be read in English  this link. I am sure their commentary is far more intelligent than mine.

Tim