Variability of Climate in Meridional Balkans during the Periods 1675–1715 and 1780–1830 and its Impact on Human Life

The periods from 1675–1715 (Late Maunder Minimum; LMM)and 1780–1830 (Early Instrumental Period; EIP)delineate important parts of the so-called `Little IceAge' (LIA), in which Europe experienced predominantcooling. Documentary data, assembled from a number ofsources, in the course of the EU funded researchproject ADVICE (Annual to Decadal Variability ofClimate in Europe), has been used to locate anddescribe events in the southern Balkans and easternMediterranean. The resulting data has been usedfirstly to investigate the incidence of phenomena suchas crops sterility, famine and epidemics and theirrelationships with climate, and secondly to analysethe extent of variability, particularly the occurrenceof extreme events, such as severe winters (cold, wetor snowy), long periods of drought and wet periods.During the LMM and EIP, more such extreme situationswere apparent compared with the last 50 years of thetwentieth century. From the scattered data found for1675–1715 and 1780–1830, the winter and spring climatein southern Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean,especially during the LMM, can be characterised ascooler and relatively rainier with a highervariability compared with the recent decades.