Medieval warm period

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Term (also known as Medieval Climatic Optimum or Medieval Climatic Anomaly) for a long period from around 900 to 1350 AD with a warm climate. The climate phenomenon occurred in different regions and at different times. This is because in other places on earth it was much colder than it is today, for example in the tropical Pacific. Temperatures in the areas affected by the warming were around 1 to 2 degrees higher than during the subsequent cold period, the Little Ice Age. In the northern Atlantic, the pack ice retreated northwards and the land glaciers partially disappeared.

Mittelalterliche Warmzeit - Temperaturveränderung

Colonisation of Greenland

This warming allowed the Vikings to colonise the island of Greenland (since 986), as the Arctic Ocean was ice-free in both directions and therefore navigable. However, the myth of a green, fertile Greenland with even vineyards, which is spread by climate change sceptics in particular, is just a myth. This rumour dates back to the time when the seafarer and explorer Erik the Red (950-1003) was exiled to Greenland towards the end of the first millennium. It was bitterly cold and life was hard there and Erik invented this lie to lure compatriots from Iceland to Greenland.

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Medieval warm period

Colonisation of Greenland

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