RECONSTRUCTION OF THE

PRECIPITATION IN THE
CANARY ISLANDS FOR THE
PERIOD 15951836
BYRICARDO GARCA, ANTONIO MACIAS, DAVID GALLEGO,
EMILLIANO HERNNDEZ, LUIS GIMENO, AND PEDRO RIBERA

This document is the full version of Reconstruction of the Precipitation in the Canary Islands for the Period 15951836,
by Ricardo Garca (Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 81, 10371039) 2003 American Meteorological Society Corresponding author: Ricardo
Garca Herrera, Dpto. Fsica de la Tierra II, Facultad de CC Fsicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid
28040, Spain E-mail: rgarcia@6000aire.fis.ucm.es DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-84-8-1037.

T
he use of documentary sources provides abun- cially over their northern side, exposed to the aver-
dant information for climate reconstruction age winds and the occasional influence of Atlantic
(Bradley and Jones 1992). Spanish historical ar- disturbances such as low pressure centers or cold air
chives posses a rich collection, which only recently has at high levels. The islands precipitation is very sensi-
started being abstracted. Data extracted from the na- tive to small variations in the synoptic situation due
val archives are providing valuable data for the oceans
(Garca et al. 2000; Garcia et al. 2001), while global
climatic oscillations based in the Spanish documen-
tary sources have been reconstructed (Gimeno et al.
1998; Rodrigo et al. 2001). The location of the Canary
Islandsin the subtropical North Atlanticmade
them a strategic point in the Spanish empire and in
consequence, were subject to a strong bureaucratic
control that has resulted in numerous and accurate
documentation whose climatic value had not been ex-
ploited up to date.
The Canary Islands are a volcanic archipelago lo-
cated between 2737 and 2925N latitude and 1310
and 1810W longitude (Fig. S1), under the direct in-
fluence of the Azores high, which makes its climate
FIG. S1. Canary Islands location, and seasonal dis-
usually dry and stable. However, the archipelagos tribution of precipitation on each island. A com-
abrupt orography, along with the combined effect of plete description of the instrumental precipitation
the oceanic currents and the trade winds make the in the Canary Islands can be found in Garca et al.
islands much wetter than usual at this latitude, spe- (2001).

ES68 | MAY 2003

 to the orographic factor, providing an excellent natu-
ral observatory for the climatic variability in the At-
lantic.
The precipitation in the islands is small but signifi-
cant, with the rainy season spanning from October to
March. This fact, along with the mild temperatures
(monthly averaged temperatures ranging from 17C
to 25C) have permitted the existence of an agrarian
culture since even before the Spanish settlement dur-
ing the fifteenth century. However, the environment
is not easy for agriculture. The Canaries are of volca-
nic origin, there are no permanent rivers and most
of their area exhibits significant slopes and few flat
terrains. Water has always been an extremely valuable
good. A few subsurface reservoirs were the only sup-
ply for irrigation and potable water apart from rain.
Thus, crop production was under the direct depen-
dence of rain in the archipelago before the introduc-
tion of new agricultural techniques and water supplies
in the twentieth century.
From the very beginning of the Spanish settlement,
the Spanish introduced a powerful bureaucratic sys-
tem managed by the church, aimed to organize the
agricultural activities and, most importantly, to keep
a record of the production amount of each farmer in
order to collect the consequent taxes. The study of the
ancient account books (Fig. S2) has allowed us to ob-
tain series of the annual production amounts for sev-
eral crops and for every island. The aim of this paper
is to reconstruct and index the precipitation in the
Canary Islands from the production series of two of
the most important and rain-dependent crops in the
regionwheat and barleybetween 1595 and 1836.
The paper is organized as follows. The next sec-
tion contains a description of the documentary
sources. The section titled Data shows the result-
FIG. S2. Example of a Canary Island account book for
La Palma Island.
AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY
ing series. The section titled The Agricultural Pro-
duction Series as Precipitation Proxy describes the
calibration procedure and the main characteristics of
the final series. The section titled The Agricultural
Production Records in the Canary Islands as an NAO
Proxy assesses the value of the reconstructed precipi-
tation as a North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) proxy.
Finally, the last section summarizes and discusses the
main results.
THE DOCUMENTARY SOURCES. The tithes
system structure. The harvest taxes, or tithes, were the
most important taxes collected by the church in the
Canary Islands. It was an annual tribute that affected
both agricultural and industrial production. Every
producer or owner had to pay 10% of the total pro-
duction either in kind (cereals) or in money, after a
public auction (rest of the taxed production). The sys-
tem was under the direct control of the Cabildo
Catedralicio (Cathedral Council), which ruled, man-
aged and supervised the collection and payment pro-
cess for the islands, allowing for small participation
of the parishes. Figure S3 shows a diagram summa-
rizing the process. The Cabildo appointed the hacedor
(general manager) among the high clergy, who was
responsible for the whole process on every island.
When the tithes were paid in kind, as was the case for
cereals, the hacedor appointed the cogedores (collec-
tors), who were in charge of the effective collection
on every region (called beneficios) into which each
island was divided. Their records were called libros
del cogedor (collectors books) and were checked by
the tazmieros (supervisors). The supervisors were
usually members of the local clergy and their main
role was to estimate the amount that should be col-
lected in each area. They kept nominal records, called
libros del tazmiero (supervisors books), detailing the
assigned amount to be collected to each producer.
Both tax books (collectors and supervisors) were
independent, and they were checked for discrepan-
cies. A final main account book called libro del pan
recorded the effectively collected amount. This
double-checking system was designed to avoid fraud in
the collection and worked efficiently for most of the life
span period of the tithes system (Macias 1984a, 1986).
In the Canary Islands, the system worked homo-
genously from the last years of the sixteenth century
(the first records in the conserved accounts books date
from 1595) to the first half of the nineteenth century,
when a growing opposition to this system, which was
considered a relic of the past, led to its end in 1837.
The last valid data were recorded in 1836. During this
period, no person or territory was excluded from
MAY 2003 | ES69

Fig. S3. Simplified structure of the tithes bureaucratic
system in the Canary Islands. Note the two parallel and
independent controls (collector and supervisor).
payment and no management changes were intro-
duced by the cabildo. This fact, has allowed us to ob-
tain continuous and homogeneous records from the
libros del pan, which can be considered the most reli-
able source for the collected quantities and, conse-
quently for the crop production. The use of the tithes
to estimate agricultural productions quantitatively has
been assessed by previous studies (Anes 1970) and
there is general agreement that they can represent
accurately the evolution of the agricultural production.
Sources of variability in the cereal production. The agri-
cultural time series can contain different sources of
variability not only related to changes in the annual
precipitation but in the agricultural techniques or the
type, size, and location of the land used to cultivate
cereals. The possible influence of economic or specu-
lative factors should also be considered.
As was pointed out in the first section, the envi-
ronment in the Canary Islands is not favorable for ag-
riculture, so peasants had to develop specific ad hoc
cultivating techniques to obtain significant yields from
a hostile land. They made it successfully and, for many
years, the islands were self-sufficient, even exporting
wine to Great Britain (Bethencourt 1991). Indeed, the
agricultural expertise of the Canarian farmers was ex-
ploited by the Spanish crown in order to develop the
ES70 | MAY 2003
early American colonies. There are no references
about changes in the production techniques for cere-
als along the study period. The farming methods in
the Canaries were essentially the same from the Span-
ish colonization until the introduction of new meth-
ods, such as modern machinery and desalination
plants, during the twentieth century.
Regarding to the land-use change, the only re-
markable feature to be considered is the displacement
of the less valued cereals (e.g., rye), to the higher and
poorer lands, when new and more valuable crops,
such as potatoes or vineyards, were introduced to the
islands. Something similar happened with the land
extension dedicated to the rest of cereals. In both
cases, the processes occurred very gradually and could
only originate a continuous decreasing trend in the
cereal production. There were no sudden changes
related to changes in land use (Macias 1986).
Finally, it must be emphasized that the main aim
of the cereal yield during the study period was assur-
ing the subsistence of the local people. This use of the
production prevented the direct interference of other
economical factors in the production variability, leav-
ing the cereals out of the usual speculative market.
Cereal imports were negligible during the study pe-
riod, so there were no changes in the cereal produc-
tion due to foreign commerce. Finally, the cereal taxes
were paid in kind, so the records directly report the
real amount of cereal produced in the islands. This
fact represents a great advantage over the tithes
records of species such as vineyard or sugar cane.
Their records contain the price obtained after a pub-
lic auction, making necessary to infer the production
from the price reached, often subject to speculation.
Therefore, apart from the secular trends due to
changes in land use, it can be considered that clima-
tology is the most important variability source of the
tithes series, with precipitation being the most signifi-
cant. In addition, rainy season in the Canaries (Oc-
tober to March), covers essentially the growing pe-
riod of the cereals in this latitude, making the cereal
production potentially a very adequate measure of
rainfall in the archipelago.
DATA. Two production series per islandwheat
and barleyhave been produced. The Gran
Canarians cathedral archives preserve the main col-
lection of the libros del pan for the 15951836 period
with the final taxes collected for these cereals. Further
description of the archives can be seen in Macias
(1984b). In the Canaries, this tax was always 10% of
the total production, so these records directly repre-
sent the total yield. It has been possible to reconstruct
several series per island, one for each beneficio. Nev- between 1682 and 1710 due to the complete lack of
ertheless, the area covered by each beneficio was not account books for these years in the cathedral ar-
constant in time. Their borders were frequently modi- chives. The reasons for such an absence are still un-
fied in order to maintain a better control over the known. Finally, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote exhibit
collected taxes. Nowadays, it is not possible to accu- the longest series with data coverage for all the study
rately know these variations, so to compute a coher- period with no missing data.
ent record, only the production for the whole island The correlation analysis between the 14 produc-
will be considered. tion series shows that, with the exception of El Hierro,
The net effect of the land-use change is the pres- the crop production behavior between the different
ence of a nonclimatic trend in the raw production se- islands is rather similar, with typical correlation about
ries. A general decreasing trend was found across the 0.40.6 (table not shown). The only exception is
archipelago, although its value is highly dependent on Hierro Island, which shows low and even negative
the island. An extreme ex-
ample is wheat production
in Hierro Island. Its wheat
production fell from values
comparable to those of
greater islands (e.g., Gomera
or even Gran Canaria) dur-
ing the beginning of the
1600s to almost null values
by the end of that century.
There are no known docu-
ments detailing the tempo-
ral evolution of the land
devoted to each crop, so the
production per unit of area
is unknown. To eliminate
this nonclimatic signal (dif-
ferent for each island), the
raw series were regressed
against time and the cor-
responding linear trend
subtracted. Finally, to make
comparable the production
rates, the series were stan-
dardized. Figure S4 shows
the results. Temporal cover-
age widely varies among
the archipelago. Wheat se-
ries for El Hierro is the
shortest, covering from
1632 to 1725. On the con-
trary, its barley series cov-
ers nearly all the study pe-
riod (from 1632 to 1836).
La Palma, Gomera, Tenerife,
and Gran Canaria show a
good temporal coverage,
with the exception of La
Gomeras first part of the
series (up to 1632) and a FIG. S4. Standardized and detrended production records for (left) wheat and
common missing period (right) barley for the seven Canary Islands.

AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY MAY 2003 | ES71

 correlation with the rest of the archipelago. The rea- vantage of representing the average crop variability
son for this difference is not a different precipitation for the entire study period with no gaps, while cap-
regime but the overexploitation of the limited produc- turing the common signal of the islands productions,
tive terrain, which resulted in an almost complete col- as is shown by the correlation values between this av-
lapse of the cereal production in this island during the erage and the individual series (Table S2). Local fac-
eighteenth century, especially for wheat from 1700 tors, such as changes in land use or in local adminis-
onwards. trative issues appear as a second-order factor in the
series variability. The weak relation between Hierro
THE AGRICULTURAL PRO-
DUCTION SERIES AS PRE-
CIPITATION PROXY. A pre-
cipitation proxy for the Canary
Islands (CPP) has been computed as
the mean of each normalized crop
production amount for every year
excluding Hierro Island. Table S1 FIG. S5. Average crop production record for the Canary Islands. Docu-
and Fig. S5 show the standardized mented droughts (shaded bars) and wet years (dotted lines) are
CPP series. This series has the ad- marked.

Table S1. Standardized CPP series.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1590 0.19 1.09 0.72 0.24 0.24

1600 0.33 1.13 0.89 0.70 0.83 0.08 0.59 0.86 0.12 0.17
1610 0.97 0.65 0.52 0.77 0.43 0.49 0.87 0.54 0.19 1.15
1620 1.03 0.25 0.05 0.17 0.14 0.13 0.00 0.34 0.55 0.09
1630 0.43 0.93 0.26 1.28 0.10 1.51 1.14 0.53 0.41 0.22
1640 0.22 0.07 0.60 0.90 0.40 0.44 0.29 0.95 0.07 0.21
1650 0.51 0.39 0.50 0.77 1.33 1.03 0.67 0.12 0.68 0.16
1660 1.87 1.24 1.26 1.13 0.44 0.08 0.57 0.16 1.81 0.28
1670 0.37 0.94 1.25 0.52 0.10 0.68 1.26 0.61 0.76 1.40
1680 0.00 0.93 1.06 1.73 0.56 0.19 2.12 0.89 1.15 1.32
1690 0.85 0.14 1.31 1.75 1.15 1.95 0.79 0.71 3.15 0.03
1700 0.49 0.82 0.19 1.18 0.24 0.67 0.39 1.00 0.43 1.44
1710 0.67 1.22 0.00 0.87 1.57 0.04 0.40 0.69 0.16 1.33
1720 0.48 3.29 0.93 0.84 0.24 1.76 0.68 1.61 0.97 1.29
1730 1.12 1.10 0.67 0.08 0.72 1.68 0.90 0.84 0.72 0.48
1740 1.10 2.05 1.62 0.79 0.31 0.30 0.67 0.92 0.32 1.87
1750 0.55 1.12 1.20 1.20 0.97 1.97 1.00 1.02 0.79 1.37
1760 0.46 1.05 0.32 1.54 0.26 0.38 0.83 0.41 0.48 1.20
1770 0.56 1.43 0.48 0.71 0.15 1.68 0.10 1.05 1.01 0.77
1780 0.38 1.03 2.22 0.08 0.19 0.11 0.16 0.05 0.48 0.04
1790 0.12 0.54 0.26 0.76 1.22 0.46 0.54 0.32 0.11 0.31
1800 0.38 0.01 0.84 1.98 0.86 0.10 0.75 0.38 0.52 1.00
1810 0.01 1.49 1.75 1.00 0.26 2.39 0.59 0.65 1.61 1.63
1820 0.83 0.61 2.30 2.23 0.26 1.01 0.04 0.29 1.94 0.46
1830 0.27 1.38 1.84 1.79 2.47 1.44 1.91

ES72 | MAY 2003

 Table S2. Correlation between CPP and individual crop production series. Asterisks indicate
99% significant correlation.
Hierro La Palma Gomera Gran Canaria
Wheat 0.06 0.55* 0.69*
Barley 0.19* 0.53* 0.64*
production and the rest of the archipelago is again
evidenced.
To assess the ability of CPP series of representing
rainfall variability, two independent series of droughts
and wet years have been used (Herrera 1979).
Drought year series. As seen before, Canary Island ce-
reals were used for internal consumption, with no or
very little exports. Precipitation was fundamental to
assure the survival of the population. A dry year of-
ten resulted in the loss of a large extent of the har-
vest, with disastrous consequences to the inhabitants.
This close linkage between survival and precipitation
was the basis of a large number of religious events car-
ried out for the local people asking for rain in the
driest years. Some of these events for Gran Canaria
were recorded in documents (chronicles, diaries, per-
sonal sources, etc.) and have been preserved up to
date. This fact makes it possible to identifyindepen-
dently of the crop production seriesseveral dry years
into the study period (gray shaded bars in Fig. S5),
providing a valuable tool to calibrate the significance
of the rain dependence over the production series.
Wet year episodes. The effect of remarkable wet years
on the crop has been assessed by a short series of wet
years recorded in documents of the epoch when the
continuous rain and the consequent saturation of the
terrain led to the breaking of one of the most impor-
tant bridges over a ravine called Guiniguada, near the
Gran Canarias capital. Five such events have been
located into the study period (dashed lines in Fig. S5).
Series calibration. The close relationship between
drought years and crop production shown in Fig. S5
is fairly obvious. The greater part of the drought epi-
sodes resulted in a CPP minimum with the best ex-
ample in 1721, the minimum CPP value for the whole
period. Other remarkable minima associated with
severe dry conditions reported have been located in
1620, 163132, 1635, 1661, 167576, 1689, 1711, 1749,
176972, and 1809. There are seven cases with
drought reported and no CPP minimum found (1673,
1684, 1731, 1760, 1762, 1778, and 1807). This discrep-
ancy can be explained in part by the fact that, occa-
AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY
Tenerife Fuerteventura Lanzarote
0.72* 0.68* 0.71* 0.66*
0.75* 0.72* 0.69* 0.74*
sionally, the rogations asking for rain started when the
first part of the rainy season was dry, risking the har-
vest. In these cases, the autumn could be initially dry
but occasionally turned to out be wet in a later stage,
partially saving the production. Nevertheless, none of
these cases are characterized by an abundant yield. On
the other hand, wet years are properly located as well.
CPP series show positive values for all of them (dashed
lines in Fig. S5). Years 1673, 1712, and 1772 were fol-
lowed by remarkably good yields, this behavior re-
flects that, usually, part of the crop during a rainy year
could be stored and used in the net years sowing,
resulting in two consecutive good harvests (provid-
ing the second year was rainy).
The comparison between the average production
during the documented droughts and the rest of the
years is displayed in Fig. S6a, the islands individual
behavior is also shown for wheat (Fig. S6b) and bar-
ley (Fig. S6c). CPP value is remarkably lower during
drought years. The same behavior is observed for the
rest of the islands, with the exception, as usual, of
El Hierro, which even shows a (nonsignificant) incre-
ment during drought years for wheat production.
Spectral analysis. A spectral analysis (Fig. S7) of the av-
erage production series has been carried out through
the local power spectrum based on a Morlet wavelet
with a characteristic frequency of six (Torrence and
FIG. S6. Comparison of the production rate during docu-
mented drought (gray bars) and the rest of years (white
bars) for the (a) average crop production, (b) wheat,
and (c) barley. Average value does not contain data
from Hierro Island.
MAY 2003 | ES73
 Compo 1998). By applying this method, it is possible
to determine the dominant modes of variability in a
time series along its length. Two significant active
phases can be distinguished. First, a low-frequency
oscillation in the band about 5060 yr started in 1650
toward the end of the series. Second, a spectral power
concentration in the band about 814 yr can be found,
from 1640 with statistically significant values (p <
0.05) between 1710 and 1775. There is a trend to
larger periods toward the end of the series with a rela-
tively sudden frequency shift about the beginning of
the eighteenth century. The CPP variability is consis-
tent with that found in instrumental precipitation
records during the twentieth century, which also ex-
hibits a strong and nonstationary spectral power con-
centration in the 810-yr band (not shown). How-
ever, a trend to longer-period oscillation (1014 yr)
is found for the CPP series, which does not appear in
instrumental precipitation.
THE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION
RECORDS IN THE CANARY ISLANDS AS
AN NAO PROXY. The North Atlantic Oscillation
is one of the most important climate variability pat-
terns in the Northern Hemisphere, involving fluctua-
tions in the atmospheric mass and energy along the
North Atlantic basin. Its main feature is the connec-
tion from seasonal to decadal scales, between the
strength of the Azores high and the semipermanent
Icelandic low, which are reinforced or weakened si-
multaneously. This oscillation is an important source
of climate anomalies across North America and Eu-
rope (van Loon and Rogers 1978; Barnston and
Livezey 1987; Hurrell 1995).
A recent study of the instrumental precipitation
records in the Canary Islands (Garcia et al. 2001)
FIG. S7. Wavelet spectrum for CPP. Black thick line
marks 95% confidence level.
ES74 | MAY 2003
shows that, during the twentieth century, the NAO
has been the main modulator of the Canarian precipi-
tation in annual scales, with negative correlation be-
tween precipitation and the NAO index. During the
negative phase of the NAO, characterized by a weaker
than average Azores high, the precipitation is more
intense and frequent due to an increment in the
strength and frequency of some of the synoptic sys-
tem associated with the rainy weather. This signal can
be found all along the archipelago, being stronger in
the five western islands due to their higher altitude
leading to a stronger precipitation signal.
An NAO index representing the phase and
strength of the oscillation can be computed by using
the sea level pressure anomalies at two locations near
the NAO poles, usually Stykkisholmur, Iceland, rep-
resenting the low pressure belt and a station in the
subtropical North Atlantic as Ponta Delgada (Rogers
1997), Lisbon (Hurrell 1995), or Gibraltar (Jones et al.
1997) representing the Azores high pole. The inter-
est in characterizing the long-term natural variabil-
ity of the climate system has made it such that, in re-
cent years, great effort had been addressed to extend
this index back in time. Jones et al. (1997) have pro-
vided the longest instrument-based NAO record, ex-
tended to 1821. Back to this date, the use of proxy data
is mandatory. A summary of the methods used and
the period covered by several NAO proxy reconstruc-
tions can be found in Luterbacher et al. (2002).
CPP series exhibit two characteristics usually
found in the NAO reconstructions available in the
literature: first, changes in the predominant frequen-
cies along the time series; second, some of the vari-
ability bands usually related to the NAO. CPP exhib-
its high-frequency oscillations about 24 yr also
found by Luterbacher et al. (1999) Rodrigo et al.
(2001), Cullen et al. (2001), or Cook et al. (2002).
Oscillations ranging from 7 to 14 yr are common as
well (Luterbacher et al. 1999; Rodrigo et al. 2001;
Cullen et al. 2001; or Appenzeller et al. 1998). While
long-period oscillations (5070 yr) can be found in
Luterbacher et al. (1999), Cook et al. (1998), or Proc-
tor et al. (2000), there is still controversy around the
significance of this band during historical times
(Cook et al. 2002).
To assess the NAO signal in CPP, its final tail has
been compared with the Jones index, the only instru-
mental NAO record with an overlapping period with
the CPP series (182436). The winter (December to
March) instrumental NAO index was computed in
order to capture most of the NAO signal for the grow-
ing period in the Canary Islands. The results can be
seen in Fig. S8. A very good agreement is shown, with

FIG. S8. Comparison between CPP (solid line) and Jones
et al. (1997) instrumental NAO proxy for winter
(dashed line) for the 181545 period.
a correlation of r = 0.74, meaning higher precipita-
tion is recorded under the NAO negative phase, as ex-
pected. Nevertheless, the short common period be-
tween instrumental NAO and CPP makes necessary
the comparison with other NAO proxies, especially
those capturing the winter signal.
The correlation between CPP and the NAO recon-
structions overlapping our study period resulted in
nonconclusive results. Two proxies representing the
winter season has been compared to CPP. Correla-
tion between CPP and a December to March proxy
NAO index from the proxy from Luterbacher et al.
(1999) is low but significant and of the expected sign
(r = 0.20, p< 0.01). The Cook et al. (2002) multiproxy
exhibits a similar correlation (r = 0.18, p< 0.01).
Nevertheless, a 31-yr running correlation (figure not
shown) shows that the CPP correlation with the rest
of the NAO reconstructions highly depends on the
period. Best agreement was obtained from 1595 to
1700 and around 1750 (running correlations ranging
between 0.3 and 0.4). On the other hand, periods
with no correlation can be found as well (171030;
178095).
CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION. This pa-
per presents the production series of wheat and barley
in the Canary Islands after the abstraction of a great
amount of documentary data stored in the Canarian
archives. Production techniques were virtually con-
stant along the entire study period while the interfer-
ence of factors such as inflation or speculation in the
signal is negligible due to the autoconsumption use of
cereal and the availability of the real amount produced.
Therefore, with the exception of the secular trends to
changes in the land use, rainfall was the main modu-
lator of the annual cereal production, making these
series an excellent basis to reconstruct the Canarian
precipitation during the preinstrumental period.
The CPP calibration proved to be a very challeng-
ing task. It was not possible to use contemporary pre-
AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY
cipitation and crop production series to construct a
regression function. The present farming methods
and the new irrigation sources in the Canary Islands
during the last decades, make the historical records
not comparable to the current values. On the other
hand, the absence of instrumental data during the
15951836 period in the archipelago required the use
of indirect measures to assess the precipitation signal
in CPP. Two independent series of wet and dry years
in Gran Canaria shows that CPP seems to capture
satisfactorily the precipitation variability.
The 13-yr overlapping period with the instrumen-
tal NAO index along with the nonstationary spectral
bands found, initially suggest the possibility of a CPP
response to the NAO. However, when comparing
with other NAO proxies, discrepancies are evidenced,
especially during concrete periods. In this regard,
different factors should be considered. First, there is
not a perfect reconstruction technique. All of the NAO
proxy indexes have their own caveats and limitations,
which may explain part of the differences. Second, and
most important, the NAO characterization even dur-
ing the instrumental period is still an open question.
Its true nature does not seem properly fixed, as shows
the lively debate trying to elucidate whether it is a re-
gional phenomenon or just a realization of a more
global hemispheric annular mode (Wallace 2000;
Ambaum et al. 2001). Its nonstationary behavior
means different studies had identified a preferred
band of variability, while a random walk behavior
cannot be disregarded (Stephenson et al. 2000).
Finally, the NAO appears as a multicenter telecon-
nection with nonstationary local effects. So, because
all the proxies use these local effects to induce infor-
mation on the NAO variability, it seems hard to ad-
mit that a single proxy can adequately represent the
NAO for a long period. Discrepancies among the dif-
ferent climate reconstructions in the North Atlantic,
available in the literature, have been repeatedly
pointed out (Cullen 2001; Schmutz et al. 2000;
Luterbacher 2002), even between nearby regions.
In this sense, CPP can be a valuable piece of the
puzzle, because it contributes to information from a
region that has been poorly represented in the pre-
vious reconstructions and can be especially relevant
for the behavior of the NAO southern center of
action.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. The authors wish to thank
C. Appenzeller, E. Cook, J. Luterbacher, C. J. Proctor, and
F. S. Rodrigo for providing their proxy NAO reconstruc-
tions. Wavelet software was provided by C. Torrence and
G. Compo, and is available online at http://paos.colorado.
MAY 2003 | ES75
 edu/research/wavelets/. The base map in Fig. S1 is copy-
righted 2002 The Living Earth Viewer. This study is sup-
ported by the Spanish Comision Interministerial de Ciencia
y Technologia under Grant CLI98-0649. Three anonymous
reviewers provided useful comments that improved the
manuscript.
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