Mid-Piacenzian Warm Period

[11] At the lagerstatte of Camp del Ninots in northeastern Spain, a MAT of 14.3 ± 2.6 °C and a mean annual precipitation (MAP) of 846.8 ± 165.4 mm prevailed.

[15] In the Qaidam Basin, annual precipitation was about ten times higher than in the present,[16] and it varied in 20-kyr precessional cycles and was likely related to the fluctuation of the EASM in response to Antarctic ice sheet dynamics and insolation forcing.

[22] Carbon dioxide concentration during the Middle Pliocene has been estimated at around 400 ppmv from 13C/12C ratio in organic marine matter[23] and stomatal density of fossilised leaves,[24] although lower estimates of between 330 and 394 ppm over the course of the whole mPWP and 391 ppm in the KM5c interglacial, during the warmest phase of the mPWP, have been given.

[26][27][28] The intensity of the sunlight reaching the Earth, the global geography, and carbon dioxide concentrations were similar to present.

Model-based biomes are generally consistent with Pliocene palaeobotanical data indicating a northward shift of the tundra and taiga and an expansion of savanna and warm-temperate forest in Africa and Australia.

[29] The increased intensity of tropical cyclones during the mPWP has been cited as evidence that intensification of such storms will occur as anthropogenic global warming continues.