El Niño/Southern Oscillation Events and Their Associated Midlatitude Teleconnections 1531–1841

Abstract

This paper reports on an investigation into the chronology of El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events during the period from the arrival of Europeans in Peru in 1531 until the year 1841 when conventional barometric data became available in the tropical regions. A number of probable ENSO events can be dated from anecdotal reports of significant rainfall in the coastal desert of northern Peru. In many of the years with anomalous Peruvian rainfall it is also possible to use various types of proxy data to identify aspects of the global teleconnection patterns usually associated with tropical ENSO events.