Interglacial climate Conditions that favor the melting of glacial ice (if present).
The glacial and interglacial cycles of the present ice age provide an important example. It is believed that orbital variations provide the timing for the growth and retreat of ice sheets.
The shift between glacial and interglacial stages, the shift between warm and cool periods during the last glacial time (Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles), and the Arctic oscillation are all considered abrupt climate changes.
The Quaternary period is the artificial division of time separating prehuman and human periods. It contains five ice ages and four interglacial ages, and temperature indicators seem to show sharp and abrupt changes by several degrees.
This is beginning to be realized, as Reference 2 admits, but meteorology is greatly lacking as a science of climate dynamics. Geologically, we are near the end of an interglacial epoch.
 See also: Meteor, Model, Horizon, Energy, Surface
  
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