New Study: Europe Was ‘Not Only Warmer But Also Wetter During Most Of The Pre-Industrial Holocene’

Europe is now dryer (and colder) than almost any other period in the last 9000 years.

A new European Alps hydroclimate reconstruction spanning the years 8980 to 2014 CE has been derived from the stable isotopes of 192 trees (Arosio et al., 2025).

The reconstruction clearly distinguishes centennial-scale warm periods such as the Medieval Warm Period (MWP), Roman Warm Period (RWP), and millennial-scale African Humid Period (when the Sahara was green, lake- and fauna-covered). These warmer centuries (millennia) were accompanied by wetter, much more humid climates.

In contrast, the coldest centuries of the Holocene such as the Little Ice Age (18th and 19th centuries) and Late Antique Little Ice Age (6th century) had the driest hydroclimates with “the most severe summer droughts of the past 9000 years.” Mass migration punctuated these cold periods.

Interestingly, the hydroclimate reconstruction shows the modern period (1900-2014) is no wetter (or warmer) than the 19th century’s Little Ice Age – the coldest, driest period of the last 9000 years. There has been no dramatic change or “uptick” in the last century.

“We suggest that much of Europe was not only warmer but also wetter during most of the preindustrial Holocene.”

Image Source: Arosio et al., 2025