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Abstract: During the last glacial, characterized by a rapid climatic variability, the Greenland ice isotope–temperature relationship is biased due to changes in the hydrological cycle. An alternative palaeothermometry method, based on air isotopes, N and Ar, provides quantitative estimates of rapid temperature increases and suggests a different shape of rapid events compared to water isotope profiles. The temperature over five Dansgaard–Oeschger events (DO) on the NorthGRIP ice core is reconstructed: DO 18, 19, 20, 23 and 24 associated with warming events of 11, 16, 11, 10 and 16 °C, i.e. roughly twice larger than the amplitude suggested by the water isotopes. Together with similar efforts, our measurements permit to show a large variability between the different DO. To cite this article: A. Landais et al., C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]