Climate of the Past Discussions www.clim-past-discuss.net 1814-9340 1814-9359 5 4 2009 10.5194/cpd-5-1819-2009 http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/5/1819/2009/ http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/5/1819/2009/cpd-5-1819-2009.html http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/5/1819/2009/cpd-5-1819-2009.pdf 1819 1852 2009-07-06 Northern high-latitude climate change between the mid and late Holocene – Part 1: Proxy data evidence H. S. Sundqvist hanna.sundqvist@natgeo.su.se Q. Zhang A. Moberg K. Holmgren H. Körnich J. Nilsson Bert Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden In this paper we try to develop a quantitative understanding of the absolute change in climate between the mid-Holocene ~6000 yr BP (6 ka) and the preindustrial period ~1750 AD (0 ka) in the northern high latitudes. This has been performed using available quantitative reconstructions of temperature and precipitation from proxy data. The main reason for comparing these two periods is that the summer insolation in the northern high latitudes was higher at 6 ka than 0 ka due to orbital forcing. Another reason is that it gives us the opportunity to quantitatively compare results from proxy data with results from several climate model simulations for the same periods by using data from the Palaeoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project. Another aim has been to try and quantify the uncertainties in the proxy data reconstructions. The reconstructions indicate that the northern high latitudes were 0.96±0.42°C warmer in summer, 1.71±1.70°C warmer in winter and 2.02±0.72 warmer in the annual mean temperature at 6 ka compared to 0 ka. 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