Rainfall variability in present-day KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, during the nineteenth century

Attempts at document-based historical climate reconstructions for Africa south of the Sahara are hampered by the comparatively recent development of written cultures in many regions. Exceptions are those areas which were either subject to colonial governance or had a history of contact with European colonial powers. Historical climate information for former Natal and Zululand (now KwaZulu-Natal) in eastern South Africa can be derived from published monographs, long-running newspapers such as the Natal Witness, colonial almanacs and Blue Books, and narratives within unpublished diaries, letters and annual reports produced by various groups of British, American, German and Norwegian missionaries. Here we utilise these sources to produce the first chronology of rainfall variability for Natal and Zululand, spanning the period from the earliest documented travel through the region in the 1820s until 1900. Results for years prior to 1860 are annuallyresolved, and for 1860-1900 are seasonally-resolved. We compare our results with reconstructions of rainfall variability from other regions of southern Africa, and consider the influence of global climate modes such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation upon periods of drought and excess rainfall identified from documentary materials.