Spring temperatures in the far-western Nepal Himalaya since AD 1640 reconstructed from Picea smithiana tree-ring widths

We developed a new, 422-year long tree-ring width chronology (spanning AD 1591-2012) from Picea smithiana (Wall.) Boiss in Khaptad National Park, which is located in the far-western Nepalese Himalaya. Seasonal correlation analysis revealed significant indirect relationship with spring temperature and lead to the reconstruction of March-May average temperature for the past 373 years (AD 1640-2012). The reconstruction was found significant based on validation statistics commonly used in tree-ring based climate reconstruction. Furthermore, it was validated through spatial correlation with gridded temperature data. This temperature reconstruction identified several periods of warming and cooling. The reconstruction did not show the significant pattern of cooling during the Little Ice Age but there were few cold episodes recorded. The spring temperature revealed relationship with different Sea Surface Temperature index over the equatorial Pacific Ocean, which showed linkages with climatic variability in a global scale.