Climate and cultural history in the Americas: An overview

There is abundant historical evidence that climatic extremes in the past have led to significant and sometimes severe societal impacts. The severity of these impacts depends on the intensity and duration of the climatic event, social organization, and the prevailing socioeconomic conditions at the time of the climatic extreme. In this issue of Climatic Change we present the results from 12 studies, which document climatic extremes on different time scales and provide interesting evidence for direct and indirect social impacts of climatic changes in the Americas during the pre-Hispanic, colonial, and modern eras.