Quarterdeck, Volume 6, Number 2, Summer 1998

This graphic compares four decades of rainfall anomaly (rainfall above and below normal) in northeast Brazil with rainfall anomaly in West Africa. Notice the opposite climates that occur on these tropical Atlantic coasts. When rainfall is high in Brazil, West Africa experiences a drought; when West Africa is rainy, Brazil is dry. These swings in climate are closely related to a sea-surface temperature variation called an Atlantic SST dipole. The solid blue line represents the north-south sea-surface temperature difference.

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Last updated August 1, 1998