(ANSA) - FLORENCE, 25 JAN - The climate in Europe at the end of the last ice age was rainier in many regions than today, so much so that in some areas of the Mediterranean up to 1000-2000 mm of rain per year fell more than in our times .
This is what emerges from a study published on ScienceAdvances conducted by a consortium of universities and research bodies including Aberdeen (lead partner), Pisa, Manchester, London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Bergen.
The discovery, explains the University of Pisa, "reverses current beliefs, until now it was believed that the climate" then "was generally more arid, and significantly improves the predictive models on the climate thanks also to a greater understanding of the importance of the current to throw (a wind very fast at high altitude) for the climate of that period ".
"For Europe this is the first quantitative reconstruction of the rainfall that occurred during the YoungerDryas, that is the period of rapid cooling of the climate that occurred about 12,000 years ago - explains Adriano Ribolini, professor of the Earth Sciences Department of Pisa -. Today we have signals that the current Polar jet could change as the climate warms, likely moving north and becoming more intermittent. This could lead to more extreme events, such as heatwaves in summer and an increased frequency of storms and floods in winter.
(HANDLE).