People have been recording local climates for centuries, chronicling hot and cold periods as well as resulting floods, famines, and fatal diseases. Now, researchers have examined a wealth of historic documents to learn how climate impacted life in early modern Transylvania, a region that today is part of Romania. They found that after several decades of uncharacteristically high temperatures, the climate changed in favor of excessive rain – and that both climates shaped human lives and societies in their own way. ‘Dear Diary … The Weather Was Bad Today, Even Worse than Yesterday’ Glaciers, sediments, and pollen can be used to reconstruct the climate of the past. Beyond ‘nature’s archive,’, other sources, such as diaries, travel notes, parish or monastery
