Variability of climate in Meridional Balkans during the periods 1675-1715 and 1780-1830 and its impact on human life

The periods from 1675-1715 (Late Maunder Minimum; LMM) and 1780-1830 (Early Instrumental Period; EIP) delineate important parts of the so-called `Litt le Ice Age' (LIA), in which Europe experienced predominant cooling. Documen tary data, assembled from a number of sources, in the course of the EU fund ed research project ADVICE (Annual to Decadal Variability of Climate in Eur ope), has been used to locate and describe events in the southern Balkans a nd eastern Mediterranean. The resulting data has been used firstly to inves tigate the incidence of phenomena such as crops sterility, famine and epide mics and their relationships with climate, and secondly to analyse the exte nt of variability, particularly the occurrence of extreme events, such as s evere winters (cold, wet or snowy), long periods of drought and wet periods . During the LMM and EIP, more such extreme situations were apparent compar ed with the last 50 years of the twentieth century. From the scattered data found for 1675-1715 and 1780-1830, the winter and spring climate in southe rn Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean, especially during the LMM, can be characterised as cooler and relatively rainier with a higher variability c ompared with the recent decades.