TY - JOUR T1 - More Frequent Hurricane Passage Across the Bahamian Archipelago During the Little Ice Age JF - Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Y1 - 2023 A1 - Winkler, T. S. A1 - van Hengstum, P. J. A1 - Donnelly, J. P. A1 - Wallace, E. J. A1 - Albury, N. A. A1 - D’Entremont, N. A1 - Hawkes, A. D. A1 - Maio, C. V. A1 - Roberts, J. A1 - Sullivan, R. M. A1 - Woodruff, J. D. KW - Bahamas KW - Carbonate KW - common era KW - hurricanes KW - Paleoclimate KW - sedimentology AB - The year 2020 Common Era (CE) experienced the highest number of named tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean since 1850 CE, but the short instrumental record makes it challenging to assess if this level of activity is statistically meaningful. Here, we present two near-annually resolved hurricane reconstructions from sediment archived in two blue holes located only 300 m apart on the northern margin of Grand Bahama. These two blue holes provide a replicated signal of hurricanes passing within a 50–100 km radius over the last 1,800 years, and the long-term reconstructions document multiple 50-to-150-year intervals when hurricane frequency was significantly higher than it has been over the last 100 years. These two records were first merged into a single stack, and then compiled with five other high-resolution reconstructions from across the Bahamian Archipelago to form a single 1500-year record of Bahamian hurricane frequency. This new Bahamian Compilation documents more hurricanes passing ∼75°W from 21°N to 26°N during the Little Ice Age (LIA; 1300–1850 CE) relative to the prior millennium and the last 170 years. The US Eastern Seaboard also experienced heightened hurricane activity during the LIA, whereas the Gulf of Mexico and Southern Caribbean were inactive. This suggests that despite a globally cooler climate, regional climate conditions during the LIA remained favorable for cyclogenesis and intensification along certain Atlantic hurricane pathways. Perhaps heightened Sahel rainfall during the LIA indicates an increase in African Easterly waves, which in turn possibly seeded more tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Main Development Region. VL - 38 UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2023PA004623 IS - 11 N1 - _eprint: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2023PA004623 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Intense Hurricane Activity Over the Past 1500 Years at South Andros Island, The Bahamas JF - Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Y1 - 2019 A1 - Wallace, E. J. A1 - Donnelly, J. P. A1 - Hengstum, P. J. A1 - Wiman, C. A1 - Sullivan, R. M. A1 - Winkler, T. S. A1 - d'Entremont, N. E. A1 - Toomey, M. A1 - Albury, N. AB - Hurricanes cause substantial loss of life and resources in coastal areas. Unfortunately, historical hurricane records are too short and incomplete to capture hurricane‐climate interactions on multi‐decadal and longer timescales. Coarse‐grained, hurricane‐induced deposits preserved in blue holes in the Caribbean can provide records of past hurricane activity extending back thousands of years. Here we present a high resolution record of intense hurricane events over the past 1500 years from a blue hole on South Andros Island on the Great Bahama Bank. This record is corroborated by shorter reconstructions from cores collected at two nearby blue holes. The record contains coarse‐grained event deposits attributable to known historical hurricane strikes within age uncertainties. Over the past 1500 years, South Andros shows evidence of four active periods of hurricane activity. None of these active intervals occurred in the past 163 years. We suggest that Intertropical Convergence Zone position modulates hurricane activity on the island based on a correlation with Cariaco Basin titanium concentrations. An anomalous gap in activity on South Andros Island in the early 13th century corresponds to a period of increased volcanism. The patterns of hurricane activity reconstructed from South Andros Island closely match those from the northeastern Gulf of Mexico but are anti‐phased with records from New England. We suggest that either changes in local environmental conditions (e.g., SSTs) or a northeastward shift in storm tracks can account for the increased activity in the western North Atlantic when the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern Caribbean are less active. VL - 34 UR - https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019PA003665 IS - 11 ER -