Clue from nature AD 1545

Queretaro bald cypress: the worst drought in 600 years ended in 1539; 1540 to 1580 was the wettest stretch

Stahle et al. 2011 reconstruction, standardised over 1400 to 1900. 1514 to 1539: mean z -0.82, the single driest 26-year window of 583 since 1400. 1540s: +0.84 (among the wettest 5 percent of decades). 1540 to 1580: +0.45, the wettest 41-year window of 568. Year by year, epidemic years are not wetter than normal (all 14: +0.04, p 0.40; the 4 major: +0.51, p 0.16) and the year before is not dry (p 0.31). Agrees with the drought atlas on the decades (the atlas partly uses these trees), disagrees with the Puebla maize record on the 1540s.

How it connects

This clue from nature argues against Cocoliztli broke out in central Mexico after drought (within two years) the epidemics came after the drought ended, in the wettest decades

This clue from nature argues against Cocoliztli broke out in wet years in central Mexico no year-by-year wet signal

This clue from nature is a clue for What caused the cocoliztli epidemics that killed most of Mexico's people (1545, 1576 and later)?

This clue from nature we read it in Stahle et al. 2011, Major Mesoamerican droughts of the past millennium, GRL 38; June PDSI reconstruction for central Mexico from Montezuma baldcypress at Barranca de Amealco, Queretaro, 771 to 2008, NOAA

This clue from nature came from this step Added the Queretaro bald cypress as a third central-Mexico record