Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Climate science

The mysteries of Sahel droughts

Past variability in Sahel rainfall is closely linked to global sea surface temperature distributions in observations and models alike. Climate simulations for the 21st century suggest that additional influences may become important in the future.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Purchase on Springer Link

Instant access to full article PDF

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Future projections of Sahel rainfall.

References

  1. Dilley, J., Chen, R. S., Deichmann, U., Lerner-Lam, A. L. & Arnold, M. Natural Disaster Hotspots: A Global Risk Analysis (The World Bank, 2005).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  2. Charney, J., Stone, P. H., Quirk, W. J. Science 187, 434–435 (1975).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Folland, C. K., Palmer, T. N., Parker, D. E. Nature 3210, 602–607 (1986).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Rowell, D. P. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc. 127, 1683–1706 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Hoerling, M., Hurrell, J., Eischeid, J. & Phillips, A. J. Climate 19, 3989–4008 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Paeth, H. & Hense, A. Climatic Change 65, 179–208 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Hagos, S. M. & Cook, K. H. J. Climate 21, 3797–3814 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Biasutti, M., Held, I. M., Sobel, A. H. & Giannini, A. J Climate, 21, 3471–3486 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Solomon, S. et al. (eds) Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis — Contribution of Working Group 1 to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2007).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Joly, M., Voldoire, A., Douville, H., Terray, P. & Royer, J. F. Climate Dynamics 29, 1–20 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Cook, K. H. & Vizy, E. K. J. Climate 19, 3681–3703 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Koster, R. D. et al. J. Hydrometeor. 7, 590–610 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cook, K. The mysteries of Sahel droughts. Nature Geosci 1, 647–648 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo320

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo320

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing