Cold spell gripped Europe 3,000 years before 'Little Ice Age,' says study
Monday, August 6, 2012 - 07:30
in Earth & Climate
(Phys.org) -- Human civilization arose during the relatively balmy climate of the last 10,000 years. Even so, evidence is accumulating that at least two cold spells gripped the northern hemisphere during this time, and that the cooling may have coincided with drought in the tropics. Emerging research on climate during this Holocene period suggests that temperature swings were more common than previously thought, and that climate changes happened on a broad, hemispheric scale.