Climatic change and foresight in agriculture: the possibilities of long-term weather advice

Abstract

Long-term weather analysis indicates a shortening of the average growing season in NW Europe from the early Middle Ages to the seventeenth century, followed by a lengthening to the mid-twentieth century, but this trend now appears to have reversed. On a world scale, wet areas exposed to prevailing westerly winds became wetter, and dry areas became drier in the first half of the twentieth century. The implications of these changes for agriculture are considerable.