East Africa's climate under the spell of El Niño since the last Ice Age
Thursday, August 4, 2011 - 14:30
in Earth & Climate
The current severe drought in East Africa is being attributed to La Niña conditions that prevailed in the Pacific until May 2011. The waxing and waning of rainfall in eastern tropical Africa in unison with El Niño-Southern Oscillation is not unusual and existed already 20,000 years ago, though the region's last 3,000 years have seen a less stable climate, according to a study published by an international group of scientists on August 5 in Science.