Lineamientos generales para la clasificación climática de Köppen-Geiger del continente americano en los siglos XVI y XVII

Abstract

To the present, there are no historiographical studies dedicated to the reconstruction and description of the American continent climate for the 16th and 17th centuries. This is mainly due to the absence of quantitative scientific records of the temperature and humidity of that period. However, this is not a limitation that prevents its study in historical and scientific terms. On the contrary, it is possible to carry out its reconstruction through the exclusive use of qualitative data obtained from historical documentary sources of those centuries, records are known in the nomenclature of climate studies as proxy data. However, there is no scientific method that allows organizing and classifying qualitative values without the respective use of quantitative data on temperature and humidity. In this situation, a new methodology dedicated exclusively to the climatic reconstruction of a certain period based solely on qualitative data extracted from historical documentary sources is proposed. This method is epistemologically based on the Köppen-Geiger climatic classification and the Air and Fronts climate classification of Arthur Strahler and Alan Strahler. The objective of the creation of this methodology is that it not only serves as a scientific instrument for the qualitative reconstruction of the American continent's climatic history of the 16th-17th centuries, but also that it is a useful method applicable to any historical period that only has proxy data for its study.