A study shows that rainfall fluctuations in various parts of the eastern hemisphere can be linked to the presence or otherwise of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. Australian scientists, Whetton and Rutherfurd, examined historical data on flooding and droughts over the past 500 years, utilising variations in height of the Nile floods, tree ring data from Java, rainfall records in northern China, and Indian drought chronology, and found events characteristic of ENSO were detectable as far back as 1750. Records before then are regarded as too poor to give reliable correlations. This information will be helpful in assessing long-term variations in ENSO behaviour, such as its response to climate change. (P. Whetton and I. Rutherfurd, "Historical ENSO teleconnections in the eastern hemisphere", Climatic Change, v. 28, p. 221-253, November 1994).
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