A latest research has found an innovative way of investigating the link between hurricanes and climate change by analyzing the history of the Caribbean Sea’s Spanish shipwrecks at the time of a planetary cooling period by the end of the 17th and 18th century.

Based on the comparisons between the Florida Keys’ tree rings and shipwrecks historical records, the research has concluded that there were quite less hurricanes, or tropical cyclones, during the time period of 1645 through 1715 when Earth experienced what is known as the ‘Maunder Minimum’.

It was the time when very less sunspot activity was connected with comparatively cooler temperatures on the planet. The Maunder Minimum belongs to a cooler period known as the ‘Little Ice Age’ in the history of our planet.

Valerie Trouet, a researcher with the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, said, “We see a severe reduction in the hurricane activity that overlaps perfectly with the Maunder Minimum”.

Trouet carried out the research, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, along with colleagues from the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

The findings haven’t resulted in any forecast in terms of the hurricanes in the coming time; however, it’s obviously suggestive. This is because hurricanes receive energy from the heat present in tropical oceans.

In case seas have lower temperatures, as they used to have between 1645 and 1715 when the planet used to get less radiation from the sun, then there is less explosive energy for drawing storms. And, if they have high temperatures, as they have today, then there’s more chance for severe storms.