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Historical evidence for Southern Oscillation‐southern African rainfall relationships
Author(s) -
Lindesay J. A.,
Vogel C. H.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
international journal of climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.58
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-0088
pISSN - 0899-8418
DOI - 10.1002/joc.3370100703
Subject(s) - climatology , southern oscillation , chronology , period (music) , el niño southern oscillation , madden–julian oscillation , geography , geology , meteorology , physics , convection , archaeology , acoustics
Summer rainfall over the central area of southern Africa is known to be modulated with the phase changes of the Southern Oscillation such that rainfall is above normal during high‐phase (cold event) and below normal during low‐phase (warm event) summers. This relationship holds for the period 1935–1986; the temporal stability of Southern Oscillation–southern African rainfall associations on longer time‐scales has not been tested. A documentary‐derived rainfall chronology has been developed for the southern parts of the summer rainfall area for the 100‐year period 1820–1920, enabling the extension of the rainfall record backward some 60 years before reliable meteorological records are available for the region. Comparison of the documentary series with both early Southern Oscillation chronologies and earliest southern African rainfall records suggests that the nature of the relationship between summer rainfall over the subcontinent and the Southern Oscillation has remained essentially unaltered since at least 1820.