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When did the Little Ice Age occur?

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Line graph showing estimated temperature variations from 1000 to 2000 CE for the Northern Hemisphere and central England, with three lines representing different data sources. The chart highlights the medieval warm period around 1100-1300 and the Little Ice Age from about 1500 to 1850, followed by a sharp temperature rise in the late 20th century. Temperature is shown as deviations from the 1961-1990 average. — Little Ice Age Estimates of temperature variations for the Northern Hemisphere and central England from 1000 to 2000 ce.

The Little Ice Age was a climate interval that occurred from the early 14th century through the mid-19th century.1

While the term is most commonly applied to this broader period of 1300–1850, some scientists use it to distinguish the more specific interval of 1500–1850, when mountain glaciers expanded to their greatest extent. This period followed the Medieval Warming Period and preceded the modern warming trend that began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.1