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Climate changes of 535 to 536
In the years 535 and 536, several remarkable aberrations in world climate took place. The Byzantine historian Procopius recorded of 536, "during this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness... and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear." Tree ring analysis by dendrochronologist Mike Baillie, of the Queen's University of Belfast, shows abnormally little growth in Irish oak in 536 and another sharp drop in 542, after a partial recovery.
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January 21, 2026
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