Overlapping climate cycles may have intensified the droughts surrounding the Late Bronze Age collapse. Research from Stockholm University, published in Science Advances, suggests these extreme conditions developed not from one isolated event, but when several natural climate cycles aligned and intensified an already drying environment. “Rather than being caused by a single climatic event, we found that the most extreme droughts emerged when natural climate cycles operating over different timescales coincided. Superimposed on this long-term trend, we also found shorter-term fluctuations in the Atlantic Ocean and atmosphere,” says Katherine Power. Overlapping cycles intensified extreme droughtThe reconstruction indicated that the harshest droughts developed when several natural climate cycles temporarily came into alignment.