Climate History in Latin America

Abstract

Written information about Latin American climates and related topics begins before the Spanish conquest, in the Maya and Aztec states of Mesoamerica. The development of Latin America’s climate history as a systematic discipline began only in 1969, with the work of Enrique Florescano. This chapter presents the state of the art on several of the most studied topics in Latin American historical climatology, including the El Niño Southern Oscillation, Caribbean cyclones, maritime climate, hydroclimatic variability, and Argentinian-Chilean southern glaciers. Sources from Latin America usually provide more information on the scarcity or abundance of water than on temperature. Latin American historical climatology has seen significant growth in recent decades, but it remains focused on certain topics and regions, particularly Mexico, Argentina, and the Pacific coast of South America.