A spatiotemporal assessment of extreme cold in northwestern North America following the unidentified 1809 CE volcanic eruptionII

Two large volcanic eruptions contributed to extreme cold temperatures during the early 1800s, one of the coldest phases of the Little Ice Age. While impacts from the massive 1815 Tambora eruption in Indonesia are relatively well-documented, much less is known regarding an unidentified volcanic event around 1809. Here, we describe the spatial extent, duration, and magnitude of cold conditions following this eruption in northwestern North America using a high-resolution network of tree-ring records that capture past warm-season temperature variability. Extreme and persistent cold temperatures were centered around the Gulf of Alaska, the adjacent Wrangell-St Elias Mountains, and the southern Yukon, while cold anomalies diminished with distance from this core region. This distinct spatial pattern of temperature anomalies suggests that a weak Aleutian Low and conditions similar to a negative phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation could have contributed to regional cold extremes after the 1809 eruption.

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Related Links

Related Dataset #1 : NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - D'Arrigo and Wilson 2006 Spring Pacific Decadal Oscillation Index Reconstruction

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Author Leland, C.
D'Arrigo, R.
Davi, N.
Anchukaitis, K. J.
Andreu-Hayles, L.
Porter, T. J.
Galloway, T.
Mant, M.
Wiles, G.
Wilson, R.
Beaulieu, S.
Oelkers, R.
Gaglioti, B. V.
Rao, Mukund Palat
Reid, E.
Nixon, T.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2023-05-01T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-11T15:18:27.191078
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:26387
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Leland, C., D'Arrigo, R., Davi, N., Anchukaitis, K. J., Andreu-Hayles, L., Porter, T. J., Galloway, T., Mant, M., Wiles, G., Wilson, R., Beaulieu, S., Oelkers, R., Gaglioti, B. V., Rao, Mukund Palat, Reid, E., Nixon, T.. (2023). A spatiotemporal assessment of extreme cold in northwestern North America following the unidentified 1809 CE volcanic eruptionII. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7vm4h8d. Accessed 02 August 2025.

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