| Title | Chapter 1. The Development of Meteorological Institutions and Early Instrumental Climate Data in the Nordic Countries |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Elin Lundstad(author) |
| Stefan Norrgård(author) | |
| Astrid Ogilvie(author) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.63308/63881023874820.ch01 |
| Landing page | https://www.whpress.co.uk/publications/2025/05/02/nordicclimatehistories/ |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.en |
| Copyright | Elin Lundstad, Stefan Norrgård and A.E.J. Ogilvie |
| Publisher | The White Horse Press |
| Published on | 2025-08-15 |
| Long abstract | The Nordic countries share much, in terms of political and economic histories, and geographically all countries border or lie within the Arctic Circle. This study focuses on their shared history with regard to meteorological observations and provides insights into this development from the 1700s until the establishment of national meteorological institutes in the latter half of the 1800s. An overview of the founding of these institutes is included. To our knowledge, this is the first study to discuss and present the history of meteorological observations across all Nordic countries together. Beginning in the 1700s, the study explores how prevailing theories on climate and weather influenced the recording and analy- sis of meteorological observations. Temperature records for each country are presented using a novel approach to illustrate temperature increases up to the present day. A cross-correlation analysis of temperature data indicates a strong correlation between all Nordic capitals, except Reykjavik, highlighting Iceland’s distinct climatic conditions even within the Nordic context. Finally, using the Mann-Kendall trend analysis, we found that Copenhagen exhibits the highest temperature trend among the Nordic capitals. |
| Page range | pp. 29–55 |
| Print length | 27 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
| Media | 6 illustrations |
Elin Lundstad is a climate researcher at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. She began studying glaciers in western Norway and climate patterns in 1996. She completed her master’s degree in historical climatology in 2004 at the University of Bergen, focusing on an eighteenth-century Norwegian farm diary. Over the years, she has explored various professional paths but found her strongest passion in historical climatology. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. on early instrumental data at the Institute of Geography at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
Stefan Norrgård is a senior researcher and climate historian at the Department of History at Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland. Subsequent to reconstruct- ing climate in West Africa during the 1700s, his research interests have centred on riverine ice breakups in Finland. He has reconstructed spring ice breakups for both the Aura River (Turku) and the Kokemäki River (Pori) between the 1700s and 2000s. He has several publications on ice breakups but his research field also covers historical climate adaptation processes and meteorological observations in Finland and Sweden in the 1700s. His ongoing research project, founded by the Kone Foundation, investigates climate, culture and society in Finland in the 1700s.
Astrid E.J. Ogilvie is a Research Professor at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado and a Senior Associate Scientist at the Stefansson Arctic Institute in Akureyri, Iceland. Her research focuses on the broader issues of climatic change and contemporary Arctic issues, as well as the environmental humanities. Her interdisciplinary, international projects have included leadership of the NordForsk Nordic Centre of Excellence project: Arctic Climate Predictions: Pathways to Resilient, Sustainable Societies (ARCPATH); and The Natural World in Literary and Historical Sources from Iceland ca. AD 800 to 1800 (ICECHANGE). She is currently a Fellow of the project The Nordic Little Ice Age (1300–1900) Lessons from Past Climate Change (NORLIA) at the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. She is the author of some 100 scientific papers and has three edited books to her credit.