Paleoclimate Records
Historical climate data extracted from natural archives like ice cores, tree rings, and sediment layers, revealing Earth's temperature and weather patterns before modern records began.
Evidence of past climate conditions preserved in natural materials such as ice cores, tree rings, sediment layers, coral, and pollen. These records extend our understanding of Earth's climate far beyond instrumental measurements, typically spanning thousands to millions of years, and reveal natural climate variability and long-term trends.
What this means in real life
Scientists drill into Antarctic ice sheets and count annual layers like tree rings, measuring trapped air bubbles to determine what the atmosphere contained 800,000 years ago—showing how CO₂ levels have changed over deep time.
What it isn’t
Not predictions of future climate. These are observations of what actually happened in the past, reconstructed from physical evidence—not computer models or forecasts of what will happen next.
Commonly misused online
Often conflated with 'climate history' or used to mean any old weather data. Actually refers specifically to indirect evidence from natural archives, not written weather records or historical documents.