Scientists Identify More Locations Where It Is Colder Today Than Anytime In The Last 10,000 Years

Sites in Canada and Africa were warmer than today throughout nearly the entirety of the Holocene.

Canada

Per a new study, eastern Canada mean summer temperatures are 13.6°C and July temperatures average 15°C today. For nearly all of the Holocene the region was 1-1.5°C warmer (16.5°C, July) than it is now.

In other words, except for a brief period during the Little Ice Age, the present temperatures are the coldest of the last 8000 years.

Image Source: Perrier et al., 2022

Scientists indicate that “in the last 150 yr, the reconstructed temperatures do not indicate a warming during this time” at sites in the Canadian Arctic (Fortin and Gajewski, 2016). Modern temperatures are 2-3°C colder than anytime in the last ~7000 years.

Image Source: Fortin and Gajewski, 2016

Scientists (Campbell-Heaton et al., 2021) studying another region in Arctic Canada also recently determined the ground surface winter temperatures now (1981-2016) average -33°C, whereas about 9000 to 10,000 years ago ground surface temperatures reached -18°C at this location, or 15°C warmer than present. Winter air temperatures, were, on average, “6-8°C warmer than today” at this time too.

Image Source: Campbell-Heaton et al., 2021

Africa

A new temperature reconstruction from Ethiopia indicates the region was 1-3°C warmer than it is today for nearly all of the last 10,000 years. In other words, it is colder now in Ethiopia than when CO2 ranged from 260 to 275 ppm.

Image Source: Bittner et al., 2022

According to a 2021 study published in PNAS, today’s temperatures in the Saharan region are the coldest of the last 13,500 years with the exception of a few centuries centered around 4,000 years ago.

And, correspondingly, the aridity in this region is worse today than anytime in the last 18,500 years, or since the peak of the last glacial – when CO2 was under 200 ppm.

Image Source: Cheddadi et al., 2021