A new study of the Little Ice Age (LIA), a global climatic event, between CE 1671-1942, which shows significant variations of rainfall patterns during that age, challenges the conventional notion of a uniformly cold and dry climate with reduced monsoon rainfall during the LIA.
- The Western Ghats experiences both the southwest summer monsoon (SWM) during June to September and the northeast winter monsoon (NEM) during October to December.
- The scientists scouted core sediment samples from the Honnamanakere Lake in Karnataka and analysed pollen accumulated in them to reconstruct the vegetation-based climate change and monsoonal variability during CE 1219-1942 from the Western Ghats, India.
- Their study published in the journal Catena showed that record of the signature of moist conditions during Little Ice Age (LIA) from the Western Ghats, India, probably due to the increased NEM. The moist (wet) LIA, moreover, shows the hydro-climatic contrast.