Distinctly Montana Magazine

68 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 5 that summers were significantly cooler, but the dendrochronolog- ical record confirms the premise that year-to-year fluctuations in temperature were more pronounced. This data also comports with descriptions of the Maunder Minimum as one of the coldest portions of the Little Ice Age. Indeed, Fritts, Lofgren and Gordon (1979) conclude that winters from 1651-1700 were approximate- ly 1.8°F colder than those between 1602 and 1650. Except for the northwestern plains, where a 3.1% increase in annual precipitation was extrapolated, relative to the period from 1901 to 1970, paleoclimatological reconstructions do not support arguments that the Great Plains received significantly more precipitation during the LIA. I suspect, however, that the magnitude of this anomalous data point would be amplified if additional tree-ring studies were conducted at sites located on the Rocky Mountain Front and/or the interface between the high plains and Montana's various island ranges. One study that meets this criterion was conducted by Gregory Thomas Pederson (2004). Based on tree-ring data obtained from sites on both sides of the Continental Divide in Glacier Nation- al Park, Pederson concludes that "A succession of long-duration, high-intensity pluvial events, un- surpassed by any in the instrumen- tal and reconstructed time series, [occurred] from 1770-1850." In- deed, statistically significant, high-precipitation intervals lasted from 1770-1791, 1800-1810, and 1818-1840, which coincides with "the height of the Little Ice Age (LIA) and glacial expansion with- in the park." Pederson's analysis also reveals that "the single most intense decadal-scale wet regime [prevailed from] 1800-1810." It is distinctly possible that the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1800 contributed to this particular precipitation pattern. The following data may not be directly applicable to Montana, but documentary and instrumental evidence strongly suggest that the 1810s were the coldest and most volatile decade of the LIA, especially in Europe and New England. Those years were punctuated by a tightly clustered series of major volcanic erup- tions, including the "Great Unknown" event of 1809, followed by Soufrière in the Caribbean (1812), Mayon in the Philippines (1814) and the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Tambora (Indone- sia) in 1815. Prince Maximilian of Wied Luke Howard

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