Three previously published proxy records of El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability were compared: a documentary record from coastal South America; an ice-core record from the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru; and a tree-ring record record from arid site conifers in the southwestern United States. The records were calibrated with long ENSO instrument records, and all the proxy records showed s...

The early last glacial termination was characterized by intense North Atlantic cooling and weak overturning circulation. This interval between ~18,000 and 14,600 years ago, known as Heinrich Stadial 1, was accompanied by a disruption of global climate and has been suggested as a key factor for the termination. However, the response of interannual climate variability in the tropical Pacific (El ...

An epidemiological survey of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was undertaken in a tribal Xhosa community in the Transkei of Southern Africa. 577 respondents aged 18 and over were examined clinically and of these, 549 were investigated radiologically and 482 serologically. The presence of RA was then assessed by means of a modification of the Rome criteria, as used in previous comparable surveys. The p...

Bantu speech communities expanded over large parts of sub-Saharan Africa within the last 4000-5000 years, reaching different parts of southern Africa 1200-2000 years ago. The Bantu languages subdivide in several major branches, with languages belonging to the Eastern and Western Bantu branches spreading over large parts of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa. There is still debate whether thi...

Prediction of the active (rainy) and break (dry) phases of the Indian summer monsoon intraseasonal oscillations (ISO’s) two to threeweeks in advance is of great importance for food production and water management of the country, but is currently unavailable. Potential predictability inherent in the quasi-periodic nature of the monsoon ISO’s is estimated from daily rainfall and circulation data ...

The main driver for the large research effort devoted to developing and improving seasonal climate prediction models is the fact that El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events (quasiperiodic fluctuations in Indo-Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures and mean sea level pressure) represent, on a global scale, the greatest source of interannual climate variability and are, to some extent, predic...

[1] A 16 year record of expendable bathythermograph transects across Drake Passage is used to examine variability in upper-ocean heat content that is not associated with the annual cycle. Links between upper-ocean heat content and anomalous heat fluxes, winds, two large-scale climate indices, and mesoscale eddies and meanders are examined. Results suggest that interannual variations in surface ...

The Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) has been documented in previous studies to significantly impact tropical cyclone activity in all ocean basins. Most of these studies have utilized the Wheeler-Hendon index. This index is only available since 1974, the period over which remotely sensed outgoing longwave radiation data has been available. Our study utilizes a long reconstructed MJO index, based...

Caribbean basin tropical cyclone activity shows significant variability on interannual as well as multidecadal time scales. Comprehensive statistics for Caribbean hurricane activity are tabulated, and then large-scale climate features are examined for their impacts on this activity. The primary interannual driver of variability is found to be El Niño–Southern Oscillation, which alters levels of...