{"NOAAStudyId":"22772","contactInfo":{"address":"325 Broadway, E/NE31","city":"Boulder","constraints":"Please cite original publication, online resource, dataset and publication DOIs (where available), and date accessed when using downloaded data. If there is no publication information, please cite investigator, title, online resource, and date accessed. The appearance of external links associated with a dataset does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of external Web sites or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities, the Department of Commerce/NOAA does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. These links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this Department of Commerce/NOAA Web site.","country":"USA","dataCenterUrl":"https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data","email":"paleo@noaa.gov","fax":"303-497-6513","longName":"National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce ","phone":"303-497-6280","postalCode":"80305-3328","shortName":"DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI","state":"CO","type":"CONTACT INFORMATION"},"contributionDate":"2017-10-06","dataPublisher":"NOAA","dataType":"HISTORICAL","dataTypeInformation":"https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data/datasets/historical","difMetadataLink":"http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/metadata/published/paleo/dif/xml/noaa-historical-22772.xml","doi":null,"earliestYearBP":310,"earliestYearCE":1640,"entryId":"noaa-historical-22772","funding":[],"investigators":"Guevara-Murua, A.","mostRecentYearBP":0,"mostRecentYearCE":1950,"onlineResourceLink":"https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/22772","originalSource":null,"publication":[{"abstract":"The management of hydrological extremes and impacts on society is inadequately understood because of the combination of short-term hydrological records, an equally short-term assessment of societal responses and the complex multi-directional relationships between the two over longer timescales. Rainfall seasonality and inter-annual variability on the Pacific coast of Central America is high due to the passage of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Here we reconstruct hydrological variability and demonstrate the potential for assessing societal impacts by drawing on documentary sources from the cities of Santiago de Guatemala (now Antigua Guatemala) and Guatemala de la Asunción (now Guatemala City) over the period from 1640 to 1945. City and municipal council meetings provide a rich source of information dating back to the beginning of Spanish colonisation in the 16th century. We use almost continuous sources from 1640AD onwards, including >190 volumes of Actas de Cabildo and Actas Municipales (minutes of meetings of the city and municipal councils) held by the Archivo Historico de la Municipalidad de Antigua Guatemala (AHMAG) and the Archivo General de Centro America (AGCA) in Guatemala City. For this 305-year period (with the exception of a total of 11 years during which the books were either missing or damaged), information relating to Catholic rogation ceremonies and reports of flooding events and crop shortages were used to classify the annual rainy season (May to October) on a five-point scale from very wet to very dry. In total, 12 years of very wet conditions, 25 years of wetter than usual conditions, 34 years of drier conditions and 21 years of very dry conditions were recorded. An extended drier period from the 1640s to the 1740s was identified and two shorter periods (the 1820s and the 1840s) were dominated by dry conditions. Wetter conditions dominated the 1760s-1810s and possibly record more persistent La Nina conditions that are typically associated with higher precipitation over the Pacific coast of Central America. The 1640s-1740s dry period coincides with the Little Ice Age and the associated southward displacement of the ITCZ.","author":{"name":"Alvaro Guevara-Murua, Caroline A. Williams, Erica J. Hendy, and Pablo Imbach"},"citation":"Alvaro Guevara-Murua, Caroline A. Williams, Erica J. Hendy, and Pablo Imbach. 2018. 300-years of hydrological records and societal responses to droughts and floods on the Pacific coast of Central America. Climate of the Past, 14(2), 175-191. doi: 10.5194/cp-14-175-2018","edition":null,"identifier":{"id":"10.5194/cp-14-175-2018","type":"doi","url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-175-2018"},"issue":"2","journal":"Climate of the Past","pages":"175-191","pubRank":"1","pubYear":2018,"reportNumber":null,"title":"300-years of hydrological records and societal responses to droughts and floods on the Pacific coast of Central America","type":"publication","volume":"14"}],"reconstruction":"N","scienceKeywords":null,"site":[{"NOAASiteId":"57488","geo":{"geoType":"Feature","geometry":{"coordinates":["14.628434","-90.522713"],"type":"POINT"},"properties":{"easternmostLongitude":"-90.522713","maxElevationMeters":"1520","minElevationMeters":"1520","northernmostLatitude":"14.628434","southernmostLatitude":"14.628434","westernmostLongitude":"-90.522713"}},"locationName":"Continent>North America>Central America>Guatemala","mappable":"Y","paleoData":[{"NOAADataTableId":"33955","coreLengthMeters":null,"dataFile":[{"NOAAKeywords":["earth science>paleoclimate>historical>document"],"fileUrl":"https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/historical/northamerica/guatemala/guatemala2017hydro.txt","linkText":"Guatemala Documentary Hydrological Records","urlDescription":"Formatted Text Data File","variables":[{"cvAdditionalInfo":"Y denotes report of an early rogative (April - May)","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>societal event"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"Y denotes report of a late rogative (in July August or September)","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>societal event"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"Y denotes reports of drought-related food shortages","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>societal event"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"Y denotes reports of food shortages but no reason given in the Actas","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>societal event"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"Y denotes reports of food shortages ascribed to excessive rainfall","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>societal event"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"Y denotes reports of 'temporales' and excessive rainfall","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>hydroclimatic variable>hydroclimate rate>precipitation"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"Y denotes Years with reports of hydrological information but not considered sufficiently detailed to enable classification of the year as wet or otherwise","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"sampling metadata>notes"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"Years reconstructed by using the different sources used by the following study: Claxton R.H.: Weather-based hazards in colonial Guatemala. Studies in the Social Sciences 25:139-163 1986.","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"sampling metadata>notes"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"Years reconstructed by using the following study: Pardo J.J.: Efemerides para escribir la historia de la muy noble y muy leal ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros del Reino de Guatemala. Tip. Nacional 1944.","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"sampling metadata>notes"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"\"A five-point scale (from -2 for very dry to +2 for very wet) was developed to describe the hydrological characteristics of each year based on information from the wet season (May-October; accounting for >90% of the annual rainfall). Based on the information collected from  the minutes of the meetings of the city and municipal councils (Actas de Cabildo and Actas Municipales) of Santiago de Guatemala (Antigua Guatemala) and Guatemala de la Asunción (Guatemala City); Claxton (1986,1998); and Pardo (1944).\"","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Numeric","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":"6-month period>May-Oct","cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":"dimensionless","cvWhat":"earth system variable>hydroclimatic variable>hydroclimate index>moisture index"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Numeric","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":"year Common Era","cvWhat":"age variable>age"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"Number of entries reporting hydrological conditions transcribed and used for reconstructing the hydrological index; for certain events the Actas contain many more entries that have not been counted or transcribed.","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Numeric","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":"count","cvWhat":"sampling metadata>number of samples"}]}],"dataTableName":"Guatemala2017Hydro","dataTableNotes":null,"earliestYear":1645,"earliestYearBP":305,"earliestYearCE":1645,"mostRecentYear":1944,"mostRecentYearBP":6,"mostRecentYearCE":1944,"species":[],"timeUnit":"AD"},{"NOAADataTableId":"33956","coreLengthMeters":null,"dataFile":[{"NOAAKeywords":["earth science>paleoclimate>historical>document"],"fileUrl":"https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/historical/northamerica/guatemala/guatemala2017hydro-decade.txt","linkText":"Guatemala Decadal Documentary Hydrological Records","urlDescription":"Formatted Text Data File","variables":[{"cvAdditionalInfo":"first year of decade","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Numeric","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":"year Common Era","cvWhat":"age variable>age"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"\"Sum of 'very dry' years (classified as years where records mention poor crop production multiple times; extending into the following year and caused by dry conditions; Rogation ceremonies carried out due to the low amount of rain in July August or September) and 'dry' years (classified as years where poor harvests are reported due to dry conditions associated with lack of rains according to Claxton (1986; 1998) or Pardo (1944) but not mentioned in city or municipal council records; Rogation ceremonies celebrated in response to the low amount of rain in May (careful consideration is given after the novenario started); Dry conditions reported by Claxton (1986; 1998) after the 1840s),N, Number of dry event years classified from sources primarily from the Actas de Cabildo and Actas Municipales (minutes of meetings of the city and municipal councils) for the cities of Guatemala and Antigua Guatemala. Sum of 10 year bin\"","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Numeric","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":"count","cvWhat":"earth system variable>hydroclimatic variable>hydroclimate index>moisture index"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"\"Sum of 'normal' years (classified as years where records include any kind of information that the rainy season has developed normally. If no information regarding wet or dry conditions is provided in city and municipal council records; the year is also classified as normal),N, Number of normal event years classified from sources primarily from the Actas de Cabildo and Actas Municipales (minutes of meetings of the city and municipal councils) for the cities of Guatemala and Antigua Guatemala Sum of 10 year bin\"","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Numeric","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":"count","cvWhat":"earth system variable>hydroclimatic variable>hydroclimate index>moisture index"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"\"Sum of 'very wet' years (classified as flooding events with severe impacts reported; years during which the city or municipal council records state that crop production was lost due to the abundance of rain) and 'wet' years (classified as records that specifically mention abundance of rain or small flooding events with no severe consequences). See Table 1 Guevara et al. 2017 in press.,N, Number of wet event years classified from sources primarily from the Actas de Cabildo and Actas Municipales (minutes of meetings of the city and municipal councils) for the cities of Guatemala and Antigua Guatemala Sum of 10 year bin\"","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Numeric","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":"count","cvWhat":"earth system variable>hydroclimatic variable>hydroclimate index>moisture index"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"number of years within the decade reconstructed in the hydrological index","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Numeric","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":"count","cvWhat":"sampling metadata>number of samples"}]}],"dataTableName":"Guatemala2017HydroDecade","dataTableNotes":null,"earliestYear":1640,"earliestYearBP":310,"earliestYearCE":1640,"mostRecentYear":1950,"mostRecentYearBP":0,"mostRecentYearCE":1950,"species":[],"timeUnit":"AD"},{"NOAADataTableId":"34193","coreLengthMeters":null,"dataFile":[{"NOAAKeywords":["earth science>paleoclimate>historical>document"],"fileUrl":"https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/historical/northamerica/guatemala/guatemala2017hydro-conf.txt","linkText":"Guatemala Hydrological Records Confidence Ratings","urlDescription":"Formatted Text Data File","variables":[{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Numeric","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":"year Common Era","cvWhat":"age variable>age"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":"A confidence rating of 1 was assigned where an extreme weather event was reported once with no follow-up in subsequent minutes of meetings. A confidence rating of 2 was assigned to events that were mentioned twice in the Actas providing us with greater and more reliable detail; while a 3 is reserved for those events for which we have multiple reports (three or more) and for years when we know that a rogation ceremony was conducted during a period of anomalous conditions","cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Numeric","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":"count","cvWhat":"sampling metadata>number of samples"}]}],"dataTableName":"Guatemala2017HydroConfidence","dataTableNotes":null,"earliestYear":1640,"earliestYearBP":310,"earliestYearCE":1640,"mostRecentYear":1950,"mostRecentYearBP":0,"mostRecentYearCE":1950,"species":[],"timeUnit":"AD"}],"siteName":"Guatemala City"}],"studyCode":null,"studyName":"Guatemala 300 Year Documentary Hydrological Records","studyNotes":"Hydrological conditions (Dry, Normal, Wet) interpreted from historical documentary evidence for the Guatemalan Pacific coastal region 1645-1944 AD.","version":"1.0","xmlId":"20955"}