18th Century Climate of Jamaica Derived from the Journals of Thomas Thistlewood, 1750-1786

Transactions, American Philosophical Society (vol. 93, part 2)

Michael Chenoweth

• Publisher: The American Philosophical Society Press
• eBook ISBN:
  9798893983371
• Year: 2003

Thomas Thistlewood is known for his daily records of life on a slave plantation in eighteenth-century Jamaica. Thistlewood's previously unexamined weather journal is shown here to be the most important written record from the Earth's tropical regions available. His observation methods are superior to most of his contemporaries & provide a high-quality daily record of more than 35 years. Comparison of his records with modern weather records indicates that Thistlewood's Jamaica was a much cooler & moister place than in modern times. A 252-year record of tropical storm & hurricane frequency in Jamaica reveals that the late 20th-century minimum in storm frequency is unprecedented.

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• 1 THE UNKNOWN CLIMATE HISTORY OF THE CARIBBEAN
• 2 METHODS IN HISTORICAL CLIMATOLOGY
• 3 THE THISTLEWOOD WEATHER RECORD
• 4 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CLIMATE OF JAMAICA COMPARED TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CLIMATE OF JAMAICA
• 5 HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS
• 6 CONCLUSION
• APPENDIXES 1-4
• References
• INDEX