# Guatemala 300 Year Documentary Hydrological Records #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # World Data Service for Paleoclimatology, Boulder # and # NOAA Paleoclimatology Program # National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # Template Version 3.0 # Encoding: UTF-8 # NOTE: Please cite original publication, online resource and date accessed when using this data. # If there is no publication information, please cite Investigator, title, online resource and date accessed. # # Description/Documentation lines begin with # # Data lines have no # # # Online_Resource: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/22772 # Description: NOAA Landing Page # Online_Resource: http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/historical/northamerica/guatemala/guatemala2017hydro-decade.txt # Description: NOAA location of the template # # Original_Source_URL: # Description: # # Archive: Historical # # Dataset DOI: # # Parameter_Keywords: weather observation, document #--------------------------------------- # Contribution_Date # Date: 2017-10-06 #--------------------------------------- # File_Last_Modified_Date # Date: 2017-10-06 #--------------------------------------- # Title # Study_Name: Guatemala 300 Year Documentary Hydrological Records #--------------------------------------- # Investigators # Investigators: Guevara-Murua, A; Williams, C.A.; Hendy, E.J.; Imbach, P. #--------------------------------------- # Description_Notes_and_Keywords # Description: Hydrological conditions (Dry, Normal, Wet) interpreted from historical documentary evidence for the Guatemalan Pacific coastal region 1645-1944 AD. # Provided Keywords: Historical Climatology #--------------------------------------- # Publication # Authors: Alvaro Guevara-Murua, Caroline A. Williams, Erica J. Hendy, and Pablo Imbach # Published_Date_or_Year: 2017-03-17 # Published_Title: 300-years of hydrological records and societal responses to droughts and floods on the Pacific coast of Central America # Journal_Name: Climate of the Past Discussions # Volume: # Edition: # Issue: # Pages: # Report Number: # DOI: 10.5194/cp-2017-30 # Online_Resource: https://www.clim-past-discuss.net/cp-2017-30/ # Full_Citation: # Abstract: The management of hydrological extremes and impacts on society is inadequately understood because of the combination of short-term hydrological records, an equally short-term assessment of societal responses and the complex multi-directional relationships between the two over longer timescales. Rainfall seasonality and interannual variability on the Pacific coast of Central America is high due to the passage of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and large-scale phenomena El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Here we reconstruct hydrological variability and the associated impacts drawing on documentary sources from the cities of Santiago de Guatemala (now Antigua Guatemala) and Guatemala de la Asuncion (now Guatemala City) over the period from 1640 to 1945. Near continuous records of city and municipal council meetings provide a rich source of information dating back to the beginning of Spanish colonisation in the 16thC. Beginning in 1640, we use almost continuous sources, including >190 volumes of Actas de Cabildo and Actas Municipales (minutes of meetings of the city and municipal councils) held by the Archivo HistOrico de la Municipalidad de Antigua Guatemala (AHMAG) and the Archivo General de Centro America (AGCA) in Guatemala City. For this 305-year period (with the exception of a total of 11 years where the books were either missing or damaged), information relating to Catholic rogation ceremonies and reports of flooding events and crop shortages, were used to classify the annual rainy season (May to October) on a 5 point scale from very wet to very dry. In total 12 years of very wet conditions, 25 years of wetter than usual conditions, 34 years of drier conditions and 21 years of very dry conditions were identified. An extended drier period from the 1640s to the 1740s was identified as well as two shorter periods (the 1820s and the 1840s) dominated by dry conditions. Wetter conditions dominated the 1760s-1810s, possibly coincident with reconstructions of more persistent La NiNa conditions that are typically associated with higher precipitation over the Pacific Coast of Central America. The 1640s-1740s dry period coincides with the onset of the Little Ice Age and the associated southward displacement of the ITCZ. #--------------------------------------- # Funding_Agency # Funding_Agency_Name: University of Bristol # Grant: postgraduate scholarship #--------------------------------------- # Funding_Agency # Funding_Agency_Name: RCUK # Grant: RCUK Academic Fellowship #--------------------------------------- # Funding_Agency # Funding_Agency_Name: La Caixa # Grant: La Caixa Scholarship #--------------------------------------- # Site Information # Site_Name: Guatemala City # Location: North America>Central America>Guatemala # Country: Guatemala # Northernmost_Latitude: 14.628434 # Southernmost_Latitude: 14.628434 # Easternmost_Longitude: -90.522713 # Westernmost_Longitude: -90.522713 # Elevation: 1520 m #--------------------------------------- # Data_Collection # Collection_Name: Guatemala2017HydroDecade # First_Year: 1640 # Last_Year: 1950 # Time_Unit: AD # Core_Length: # Notes: Yearly #--------------------------------------- # Chronology_Information # Chronology: #--------------------------------------- # Variables # Data variables follow that are preceded by "##" in columns one and two. # Variables list, one per line, shortname-tab-longname components (9 components: what, material, error, units, seasonality, archive, detail, method, C or N for Character or Numeric data) ## decade_AD age,,,years AD,,,decade starting from this year,,N, ## Dry Dry Event Year Count,,,count,,historical,,Sum of 'very dry' years (classified as years where records mention poor crop production multiple times; extending into the following year and caused by dry conditions; Rogation ceremonies carried out due to the low amount of rain in July August or September) and 'dry' years (classified as years where poor harvests are reported due to dry conditions associated with lack of rains according to Claxton (1986; 1998) or Pardo (1944) but not mentioned in city or municipal council records; Rogation ceremonies celebrated in response to the low amount of rain in May (careful consideration is given after the novenario started); Dry conditions reported by Claxton (1986; 1998) after the 1840s),N, Number of dry event years classified from sources primarily from the Actas de Cabildo and Actas Municipales (minutes of meetings of the city and municipal councils) for the cities of Guatemala and Antigua Guatemala. Sum of 10 year bin ## Normal Normal Event Year Count,,,count,,historical,,Sum of 'normal' years (classified as years where records include any kind of information that the rainy season has developed normally. If no information regarding wet or dry conditions is provided in city and municipal council records; the year is also classified as normal),N, Number of normal event years classified from sources primarily from the Actas de Cabildo and Actas Municipales (minutes of meetings of the city and municipal councils) for the cities of Guatemala and Antigua Guatemala Sum of 10 year bin ## Wet Wet Event Year Count,,,count,,historical,,Sum of 'very wet' years (classified as flooding events with severe impacts reported; years during which the city or municipal council records state that crop production was lost due to the abundance of rain) and 'wet' years (classified as records that specifically mention abundance of rain or small flooding events with no severe consequences). See Table 1 Guevara et al. 2017 in press.,N, Number of wet event years classified from sources primarily from the Actas de Cabildo and Actas Municipales (minutes of meetings of the city and municipal councils) for the cities of Guatemala and Antigua Guatemala Sum of 10 year bin ## Tot_yr_recon years reconstructed,,,count,,,number of years within the decade reconstructed in the hydrological index,,N, Sum of 10 year bin # #------------------------ # Data # Data lines follow (have no #) # Data line format - tab-delimited text, variable short name as header # Missing Value: decade_AD Dry Normal Wet Tot_yr_recon 1640 1 9 0 10 1650 2 7 1 10 1660 4 6 0 10 1670 1 9 0 10 1680 2 6 2 10 1690 5 3 2 10 1700 2 8 0 10 1710 3 7 0 10 1720 5 4 1 10 1730 5 5 0 10 1740 3 6 1 10 1750 1 8 1 10 1760 0 8 2 10 1770 0 9 1 10 1780 0 4 3 7 1790 1 5 2 8 1800 1 8 1 10 1810 1 5 4 10 1820 4 5 1 10 1830 0 9 0 9 1840 3 6 1 10 1850 0 7 1 8 1860 2 4 2 8 1870 0 8 2 10 1880 2 8 0 10 1890 3 5 2 10 1900 0 8 2 10 1910 2 7 1 10 1920 2 6 2 10 1930 0 9 1 10 1940 0 5 1 6