TREE-RING RECONSTRUCTED RAINFALL OVER THE SOUTHEASTERN USA DURING THEMEDIEVAL WARM PERIOD AND LITTLE ICE-AGE

A 1053-year reconstruction of spring rainfall (March-June) was develop ed for the southeastern United States, based on three tree-ring recons tructions of statewide rainfall from North Carolina, South Carolina, a nd Georgia. This regional reconstruction is highly correlated with the instrumental record of spring rainfall (r = +0.80; 1887-1982), and ac curately reproduces the decade-scale departures in spring rainfall amo unt and variance witnessed over the Southeast during the past century. No large-magnitude centuries-long trends in spring rainfall amounts w ere reconstructed over the past 1053 years, but large changes in the i nterannual variability of spring rainfall were reconstructed during po rtions of the Medieval Warm Period (MWP), Little Ice Age (LIA), and th e 20th century. Dry conditions persisted at the end of the 12th centur y, but appear to have been exceeded by a reconstructed drought in the mid-18th century. High interannual variability, including five extreme ly wet years were reconstructed for a 20-yr period during the late 16t h and early 17th centuries, and may reflect amplified atmospheric circ ulation over eastern North America during what appears to have been on e of the most widespread cold episodes of the Little Ice Age.