Documentary records

Documents provide a unique account of the human experience of climate. This can be a series of detailed observations of the weather that span many years through to almost casual comments that carry indirect information about the climate. These records of the weather often relate to a specific time and place so are not averaged over days or weeks or related to the climate of a region. Records of the positions of glacial margins or the condition of crops, for example, may give more general information. The record is one that spans as much as 5000 years, but is fraught with difficulties in interpretation. The human observer can be biased and in some cases deliberately misleading. Issues of verification and analysis make interpretation of the documentary record particularly challenging.