After this one single event, countries around the world were affected in different ways. The primary culprit may have been the 1257 Mount Salamas eruption, which took place in Lombok, Indonesia.
Though there is no conclusive evidence to explain why this phenomenon happened, there is a working hypothesis to what may have caused it. While other areas became plentiful and prosperous, both benefiting and lending favorable conditions to strengthen various human civilizations.
Some regions of the world were severely affected, leading to war, famine, disease, and even abandonment. Unlike the previous ice ages and warm periods, which caused havoc to the environment and forced humanity to change its survival methods, the Little Ice Age had varying effects. Now please be forewarned, the Little Ice Age (LIA) should not be confused with the Medieval Warm Period, or the Last Glacial Period, since it carries its own unique events that may have changed the course of history for many human cultures around the globe. "The most likely scenario is that the Northern Hemisphere and the UK will continue to warm," he said.The Little Ice Age is a period tentatively defined as running from the 13 th/14 th to the 19 th century in which the northern hemisphere of Earth endured a limited but substantial cooling period. Though Amoc may contribute to a slight dip in temperatures, he added this should not be seen as some kind of antidote for human-induced global warming. “These are more likely to happen, but how severe they are depend on how severe the Amoc weakening is,” said Dr Thornalley. There will also be a rise in sea levels on the East Coast of the US, and an overall increase in sea temperatures will impact marine life in the Atlantic. Research has previously suggested this weakening will play havoc on weather systems on both sides of the Atlantic.Īs the Amoc slows down, winter storms in the UK will become more prevalent, as will summer heatwaves across Europe. However, even if the Amoc weakening is only gradual – as the climate models predict and the current data appears to show – it is still a cause for concern. The data suggests the Atlantic current has slowed by around 15 per cent – although the two new studies differ on the timescale over which this weakening has taken place. “That is scientifically accurate – we just don’t think it’s that likely.” “The circulation is one of Earth’s tipping points, and it remains the case that it could suddenly collapse,” he continued. “If the more extreme case happened with the shutdown of the circulation then yes it is the case that Britain could cool – and it could cool by quite a lot, maybe 5 degrees Celsius,” said Dr Thornalley. While a sudden shutdown now would probably not cause disaster on a Hollywood scale, its effects would certainly be dramatic, and characterised by extreme weather across the Atlantic region. “The science behind it says that the shutdown – the severe weakening of the Atlantic circulation – has happened in the past and during the last ice age it happened a number of times.”įluctuations in the Amoc have in the past contributed to major climate changes, including the onset of the last ice age. “ The Day After Tomorrow is clearly a very extreme version,” Dr David Thornalley, a climate scientist at University College London and co-author of one of the studies, told The Independent. It’s highly unlikely, but that does not mean the film is a complete fabrication.