NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Reconstructed Warm Season Temperatures for Nome, Seward Peninsula, Alaska from 1389-2001 CE

Understanding of past climate variability in the Bering Strait region and adjacent land areas is limited by a paucity of long instrumental and paleoclimatic records. Here we describe a reconstruction of May– August temperatures for Nome, Seward Peninsula, Alaska based on maximum latewood density data which considerably extends the available climatic information. The reconstruction shows warm conditions in the late 1600s and middle-20th century and cooler conditions in the 1800s. The summer of 1783, coinciding with the Laki, Iceland volcanic event, is among the coldest in the reconstruction. Statistically significant relationships with the North Pacific Index and Bering-Chukchi sea surface temperatures indicate that the Seward tree-ring data are potentially useful as long-term indices of atmosphere-ocean variability in the region.