During the winter of 12,679 years ago, western Europe was apparently slammed with a major wind shift that heralded the start of the coldest period in recent history.
Earlier work suggested that the Younger Dryas cold spell began rapidly around 12,700 years ago. Now, a team led by Achim Brauer of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany, has narrowed this down by studying sediments laid down annually in a German lake.
The layers, called varves, record a dramatic shift in storminess over the course of a single year. The authors argue that this reflects changes in atmospheric circulation patterns over the Atlantic, and helps explain how a shutdown of ocean circulation could have led to abrupt cooling in western Europe.
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Palaeoclimate: Quick start to a cold spell. Nature 454, 670 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454670e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/454670e
