Tropical Pacific Played Role in Southwest Medieval Megadroughts

The large, decades-long droughts that defined the medieval period in the Southwest may have been due to prolonged cool conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Rob Burgman, a scientist at The University of Miami, used fossil coral estimates of cool tropical Pacific ocean temperatures from 1360-1462 AD to drive a global climate model.  The resulting climate simulation shows a much drier Southwest compared to present-day. Dry conditions across Europe, the Middle East, northwest Africa, and southern South America also resulted from these cool tropical Pacific Ocean temperatures, linking Southwest climate variability to climate across the globe.