What was done
The author developed a number of very similar summer (May - August) temperature histories for central and southern Norway based on relationships established between modern instrumental temperature records and dates of local grain harvest (barley and oats).

What was learned
Summer temperatures during the last part of the Little Ice Age (1813 - 1880) were about 1°C lower than those of the last 70 years; while "the warmest decade of the series is the 1930s."  Hence, as the author remarks, "the long-term trends in the nineteenth century are all positive leading up to a maximum value in the 1930s."

What it means
It means that data from rural areas in Norway tell much the same story as the U.S. Historical Climatology Network database.  As we said in our Editorial of 1 July 2000, and as we say repeatedly in the Temperature Record of the Week section of CO2 Science Magazine, "there has been no global warming for the past 70 years."