Written Records

Written records give us an idea about temperatures, precipitation, solar activity, and major weather-related events. These records include: Journals that contain observations about the weather. These observations may be as simple mentioning wind direction and speed, or could even give the date of the first snowfall or frost. It could be a diary which happens to mention, "today, April 1, 1773, it snowed six inches" in a town in Italy. A picture or drawing of a landscape, especially those which show weather-related scenery. If the drawing is of a known glacier, and has an accurate date, then this gives us a clue about whether the glacier has advanced or retreated. Detailed records about crops. The records could tell about drought, dates of harvest, or crop failures.

Each of these written records give us data which can be pieced together to give us an idea about our past climate. These records only go back a little over a thousand years but give us some pretty accurate records of climate, even on a daily basis.

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