NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Northwest Himalaya 635 Year Precipitation Reconstruction

The spatial and temporal span of hydrological impact of the "Little Ice Age" (LIA) in the north-western Himalaya is not well constrained due to data limitation. We evaluated a network of tree-ring chronologies from moisture-stressed ecological settings in Jammu and Kashmir to identify the impact of LIA over the western Himalaya. Our study reflects three centennial scale phases; the middle phase (1650s–1850s CE) with stable precipitation and in accordance with other hydrological records clearly demarcates the LIA impact over the Himalaya. However, high-magnitude droughts recorded in early (1383–1650s CE) and late phases (1850s–2017) underpin that the north-western Himalaya did not witness any LIA influence before 1650s.