Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Reconstructions for the Past 1500 Years ----------------------------------------------------------------------- World Data Center for Paleoclimatology, Boulder and NOAA Paleoclimatology Program ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: PLEASE CITE ORIGINAL REFERENCE WHEN USING THIS DATA!!!!! NAME OF DATA SET: Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Reconstructions for the Past 1500 Years LAST UPDATE: 4/2010 (Original receipt by WDC Paleo) CONTRIBUTORS: Mann, M.E., J.D. Woodruff, J.P. Donnelly, and Z. Zhang IGBP PAGES/WDCA CONTRIBUTION SERIES NUMBER: 2010-022 WDC PALEO CONTRIBUTION SERIES CITATION: Mann, M.E., et al. 2010. Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Reconstructions for the Past 1500 Years. IGBP PAGES/World Data Center for Paleoclimatology Data Contribution Series # 2010-022. NOAA/NCDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder CO, USA. ORIGINAL REFERENCE: Mann, M.E., J.D. Woodruff, J.P. Donnelly, and Z. Zhang. 2009. Atlantic hurricanes and climate over the past 1,500 years. Nature, Vol. 460, pp. 880-885, 13 August 2009. doi:10.1038/nature08219 ABSTRACT: Atlantic tropical cyclone activity, as measured by annual storm counts, reached anomalous levels over the past decade. The short nature of the historical record and potential issues with its reliability in earlier decades, however, has prompted an ongoing debate regarding the reality and significance of the recent rise. Here we place recent activity in a longer-term context by comparing two independent estimates of tropical cyclone activity over the past 1,500 years. The first estimate is based on a composite of regional sedimentary evidence of landfalling hurricanes, while the second estimate uses a previously published statistical model of Atlantic tropical cyclone activity driven by proxy reconstructions of past climate changes. Both approaches yield consistent evidence of a peak in Atlantic tropical cyclone activity during medieval times (around AD 1000) followed by a subsequent lull in activity. The statistical model indicates that the medieval peak, which rivals or even exceeds (within uncertainties) recent levels of activity, results from the reinforcing effects of La-Nina-like climate conditions and relative tropical Atlantic warmth. GEOGRAPHIC REGION: Atlantic Ocean PERIOD OF RECORD: 500 - 2006 AD FUNDING SOURCES: US National Science Foundation ATM programme (grant ATM-0542356 to M.E.M. and Z.Z.), USNSF EAR and OCE programmes (grants EAR-0519118 and OCE-0402746 to J.P.D.), Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences Risk Prediction Initiative, and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. DESCRIPTION: Supplemental Information for Mann et al (2009) Nature Historical Tropical Cyclone (TC) counts TC counts [Year | Annual | Decadal Smoothed| Multidecadal Smoothed] Standard case [Mann et al '07 adjustments](1870-2006), file TC.dat Alternative case [Landsea '07 adjustments](1870-2006), file TCLandsea.dat Annual Instrumental Climate Series Used to Train Statistical Model SST Products [Year | Blended | HadISST_ | Kaplan | NOAA ERSST] MDR ASO SST (1870-2006) (anomalies relative to 1870-2006 mean), file mdr.dat Nino3 DJF (1870-2006, where year is 'D' in DJF) (anomalies relative to 1870-2006 mean), file nino3.dat NAO Series [Year | Index Value (CRU NAO data)] NAO DJFM (1870-2006, where year is 'D' in DJFM) (anomalies relative to 1951-1980 mean), file nao.dat Decadally-Resolved Proxy Reconstructions Used in Statistical Model TC Predictions (anomalies relative to same base periods as above) Proxy Reconstruction [Year | Reconstructed Value | -2 sigma limit | +2 sigma limit] MDR (AD 850-1850) [from ref. 17 of article, reconstruction was trained on modern HadCRU SST data], file mdrrecon.dat Nino3 (AD 850-1850) [from ref. 17 of article, reconstruction was trained on modern HadCRU SST data], file ninorecon.dat NAO (AD 1500-1850) [from ref. 18 of article, Luterbacher proxy/historical winter NAO reconstruction], file naorecon.dat Corresponding Instrumental Series [Year | HadCRU MDR| HadCRU Nino3 | Luterbacher+CRU NAO] Decadal Instrumental Series shown in Fig 3 of paper [from ref.s 17 and 18 of article] (1851-2006), file instrdec.dat Statistical Model Predictions of TC Past Activity Proxy-Driven Predictions [Year | Predictions ] Standard case (uses Mann et al ’07 adjustment of historical TC series) (AD 500-1850), file TCStatModelRecon.dat Alternative Case (uses Landsea ‘07 adjustment of historical TC series) (AD 500-1850), file TCStatModelReconLandsea.dat Training Interval Fit [Year | Annual | Decadal Smoothed | Multidecadal Smoothed] Standard case (uses Mann et al ’07 adjustment of historical TC series) (1870-2006), file TCStatModel.dat Alternative case (uses Landsea ‘07 adjustment of historical TC series) (1870-2006), file TCStatModelLandsea.dat Raw Individual Overwash Sediment Deposit Chronologies Event Chronologies [ best estimate date | -1 sigma age limit | +1 sigma age limit] Mattapoisett Marsh, MA (ref. 15 of article), file MAmatta.dat Succotash Marsh, RI (ref. 14 of article), file RIsucc.dat Alder Island, NY (ref. 9 of article), file NYAlder.dat Brigantine, NJ (ref. 13 of article), file NJBrig.dat Whale Beach, NJ (ref. 12 of article), file NJWhale.dat Singleton Swash, SC (ref. 8 of article; "oyster bed dates" AD 169, 652, 1283 not used-see article), file SCSingleton.dat Western Lake, FL (ref. 11 of article), file FLWestern.dat Laguna Playa Grande Lake, Vieques, PR (ref.s 6,9,10 of article), file PRVieques.dat Regionally Composited Sediment Chronologies Event Chronologies [ best estimate date | -1 sigma age limit | +1 sigma age limit] New England U.S. Coast, file NewEng.dat Mid Atlantic U.S. Coast, file MidAtl.dat Southeast U.S. Coast, file Southeast.dat Gulf U.S. Coast, file Gulf.dat Caribbean, file Caribbean.dat Sediment-Based Basin-Wide Landfalling Hurricane Series and Jacknife Surrogates (see "Methods" for details) Series [Year | Value | Value w/out post 1700 Vieques | j.k. surr1|j.k. surr2| j.k. surr3 | j.k.surr4| j.k. surr5 ] Standard case (chronologies normalized, variable sensitivity assumed among sites)(AD 500-1991), file TCoverwash.dat Alternative case (chronologies not normalized) (AD 500-1991), file TCoverwashUnNorm.dat Alternative case (uniform assumed sensitivity among sites) (AD 500-1991), file TCoverwashUniformPeriod.dat Alternative case (uniform weights on sites) (AD 500-1991), file TCoverwashUniformWeights.dat Matlab© Codes for Performing the Analyses Described in the Article Driver for overall analysis, file PaleoTC.m Code to fit Poisson regression model and apply to proxy reconstructions to yield long-term TC reconstruction and associated standard errors, file StatModelPaleoTC.m Code to compute ensemble of basin-wide landfalling hurricane series from sediment chronologies and their estimated age model uncertainties, file MakeProxMC.m Same as "MakeProxMC" but without New England records, file MakeProxMCNoNE.m Same as "MakeProxMC" but without Mid-Atlantic records, file MakeProxMCNoMidAtl.m Same as "MakeProxMC" but without Southeast U.S. record, file MakeProxMCNoSC.m Same as "MakeProxMC" but without Gulf Coast record, file MakeProxMCNoGulf.m Same as "MakeProxMC" but without Puerto Rico record, file MakeProxMCNoPR.m Same as "MakeproxMC" but without Puerto record after AD 1700, file MakeProxMCNoPRRecent.m Code to compute Gaussian random deviates used by "StatModelPaleoTC.m", file gasdev.m Lowpass filtering codes used in various routines from Mann GRL '08 Note that the access to ©Matlab ‘signal’ toolkit is required Lowpass filter routine to approximately implement min norm/min slope/min roughness boundary constraints as described in manuscript, file lowpass.m Lowpass filter routine to implement 'mean padded' boundary constraints as described in manuscript, file lowpassmeanpad.m Lowpass filter routine to implement 'adaptive' boundary constraints as described in manuscript (minor errors fixed 9/2/08: (i) upper limit error bound too low; (ii) w3 could be chosen such that weights don’t add to unity; under most circumstances - including the analyses in the manuscript - these errors do not influence results obtained, but they could under some circumstances), file lowpassadaptive.m Lowpass filter routine used for lower boundary constraint by 'lowpassadaptive', file lowpassmin.m