What was done
The authors meticulously waded through a wealth of weather records from Guangdong Province in southern China, extracting data pertaining to the landfall of typhoons there since AD 975.  They then calibrated the historical data against instrumental observations from the period 1884-1909.  Finding the trends of the two data sets to be significantly correlated (r = 0.71), they thus concluded that "the time series reconstructed from historical documentary evidence contains a reliable record of variability in typhoon landfalls," whereupon they proceeded to report the story of their truly historic historical record.

What was learned
Spectral analysis of the Guangdong time series revealed an approximate 50-year cycle in the frequency of typhoon landfall, which, the authors say, "suggests an external forcing mechanism, which remains to be identified."  In addition - and "remarkably," as they further note - "the two periods of most frequent typhoon strikes in Guangdong (AD 1660-1680, 1850-1880) coincide with two of the coldest and driest periods in northern and central China during the Little Ice Age."

What it means
This finding is remarkable?  Well, the word probably fits ... if you're a climate alarmist.  But if you're a regular reader of CO2 Science Magazine, it's just what you've come to expect.  In cases where temperature seems to play a role in influencing the frequency or intensity of extreme weather events, things generally seem to get better, i.e., less extreme, when the climate warms.  At the very least, out of deference to last week's Editorial, they sure don't seem to get any worse.