Juniper tree-ring data from the Kuramin Mountains (Republic of Tajikistan), reveals changing summer drought signals in western Central Asia

We present a regional tree-ring chronology from moisture-sensitive Juniperus seravschanica from the Kuramin Mountains (Tajikistan) in western Central Asia, which is used to reveal past summer drought variability from CE 1650 to 2015. The chronology accounts for 40.5% of the variance of the June–July self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI) during the instrumental period (1901 to 2012).