{"NOAAStudyId":"12201","contactInfo":{"address":"325 Broadway, E/NE31","city":"Boulder","constraints":"Please cite original publication, online resource, dataset and publication DOIs (where available), and date accessed when using downloaded data. If there is no publication information, please cite investigator, title, online resource, and date accessed. The appearance of external links associated with a dataset does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of external Web sites or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities, the Department of Commerce/NOAA does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. These links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this Department of Commerce/NOAA Web site.","country":"USA","dataCenterUrl":"https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data","email":"paleo@noaa.gov","fax":"303-497-6513","longName":"National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce ","phone":"303-497-6280","postalCode":"80305-3328","shortName":"DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI","state":"CO","type":"CONTACT INFORMATION"},"contributionDate":"2011-10-04","dataPublisher":"NOAA","dataType":"HISTORICAL","dataTypeInformation":"https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data/datasets/historical","difMetadataLink":"http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/metadata/published/paleo/dif/xml/noaa-historical-12201.xml","doi":null,"earliestYearBP":76,"earliestYearCE":1874,"entryId":"noaa-historical-12201","funding":[{"fundingAgency":"US NOAA","fundingGrant":null}],"investigators":"Nicholson, S.E.","mostRecentYearBP":50,"mostRecentYearCE":1900,"onlineResourceLink":"https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/12201","originalSource":null,"publication":[{"abstract":"This article describes a historical archive of proxy and actual \r\nprecipitation data that extends the African climate record back \r\nto the early nineteenth century. The 'proxy' archive includes\r\nverbal, documentary references which contain information related \r\nto rainfall conditions, such as references to famine, drought, \r\nagriculture or the nature of the rainy season. The precipitation \r\narchive includes all observations made in Africa during the \r\nnineteenth century. It consists of records for 60 stations \r\nin Algeria, 87 stations in South Africa and 304 stations \r\nscattered over the rest of Africa. Information is particularly \r\nplentiful for the 1880s and 1890s. The two parts have been \r\ncombined into a semi-quantitative regional data set indicating \r\nannual rainfall conditions in terms of anomaly classes (e.g., \r\nnormal, dry, wet). This data set extends from the early nineteenth \r\ncentury to 1900 and distinguishes seven anomaly classes, using \r\nnumbers ranging from -3 to +3 to represent very wet, wet, good \r\nrains, normal, dry, drought, and severe drought. The regionalization \r\nis based on 90 geographical regions shown via studies of the modern \r\nprecipitation record to be climatically homogeneous with respect to \r\nthe interannual variability of rainfall. The regional aggregation \r\nallows the voluminous fragmentary information available in \r\nhistorical sources to be used systematically to produce multiyear\r\ntime series that can be directly integrated into the modern record \r\nfor each region. The resultant time series can also be subjected \r\nto statistical analysis, in order to investigate nineteenth century\r\nclimate over Africa. Spatial detail is added to the data set by \r\nutilizing a unique methodology based on climatic teleconnections \r\nestablished from studies of rainfall variability over Africa. \r\nThe historical information and station records have been combined \r\ninto a file containing a regional anomaly value for up to 90 \r\ngeographic regions and the years 1801-1900. Gaps necessarily \r\nremain in the matrix, but as early as the 1820s over 40 regions \r\nare represented. By the 1880s generally around 70 regions or more \r\nare represented.\r\n","author":null,"citation":"Nicholson, S.E. 2001. \r\nA Semi-Quantitative, Regional Precipitation Data Set for Studying \r\nAfrican Climates of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. \r\nOverview of the Data Set. \r\nClimatic Change, Volume 50, Number 3, pp. 317-353, August 2001. \r\nDOI: 10.1023/A:1010674724320 ","edition":null,"identifier":{"id":"10.1023/A:1010674724320","type":"doi","url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1010674724320"},"issue":null,"journal":"Climatic Change","pages":null,"pubRank":"1","pubYear":2001,"reportNumber":null,"title":"A Semi-Quantitative, Regional Precipitation Data Set for Studying  African Climates of the Nineteenth Century, Part I.  Overview of the Data Set","type":"publication","volume":null}],"reconstruction":"N","scienceKeywords":null,"site":[{"NOAASiteId":"52406","geo":{"geoType":"Feature","geometry":{"coordinates":["34.1333","2.05"],"type":"POINT"},"properties":{"easternmostLongitude":"2.05","maxElevationMeters":"1426","minElevationMeters":"1426","northernmostLatitude":"34.1333","southernmostLatitude":"34.1333","westernmostLongitude":"2.05"}},"locationName":"Continent>Africa>Northern Africa>Algeria","mappable":"Y","paleoData":[{"NOAADataTableId":"20523","coreLengthMeters":null,"dataFile":[{"NOAAKeywords":["earth science>paleoclimate>historical>document","earth science>paleoclimate>historical>weather observation"],"fileUrl":"https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/historical/africa/africa2001precip.txt","linkText":"africa2001precip.txt","urlDescription":"Data","variables":[{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>temperature variable>temperature"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>hydroclimatic variable>hydroclimate index>moisture index"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>hydroclimatic variable>hydroclimate 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observation"],"fileUrl":"https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/historical/africa/africa2001precip.xls","linkText":"africa2001precip.xls","urlDescription":"Data","variables":[]}],"dataTableName":"AFLOU","dataTableNotes":null,"earliestYear":1874,"earliestYearBP":76,"earliestYearCE":1874,"mostRecentYear":1900,"mostRecentYearBP":50,"mostRecentYearCE":1900,"species":[],"timeUnit":"AD"}],"siteName":"Aflou"},{"NOAASiteId":"52700","geo":{"geoType":"Feature","geometry":{"coordinates":["-34","18.4667"],"type":"POINT"},"properties":{"easternmostLongitude":"18.4667","maxElevationMeters":"1426","minElevationMeters":"10","northernmostLatitude":"-34","southernmostLatitude":"-34","westernmostLongitude":"18.4667"}},"locationName":"Continent>Africa>Southern Africa>South Africa","mappable":"Y","paleoData":[{"NOAADataTableId":"20859","coreLengthMeters":null,"dataFile":[{"NOAAKeywords":["earth science>paleoclimate>historical>weather observation","earth science>paleoclimate>historical>document"],"fileUrl":"https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/historical/africa/africa2001precip.txt","linkText":"africa2001precip.txt","urlDescription":"Data","variables":[{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>temperature variable>temperature"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>hydroclimatic variable>hydroclimate index>moisture index"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>hydroclimatic 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science>paleoclimate>historical>weather observation"],"fileUrl":"https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/historical/africa/africa2001precip.txt","linkText":"africa2001precip.txt","urlDescription":"Data","variables":[{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>temperature variable>temperature"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>hydroclimatic variable>hydroclimate index>moisture index"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Character","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":null,"cvWhat":"earth system variable>hydroclimatic variable>hydroclimate rate>streamflow"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"HISTORICAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Numeric","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":"year Common Era","cvWhat":"age variable>age"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"INSTRUMENTAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Numeric","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":"year Common Era","cvWhat":"sampling metadata>collection date"},{"cvAdditionalInfo":null,"cvDataType":"INSTRUMENTAL","cvDetail":null,"cvError":null,"cvFormat":"Numeric","cvMaterial":null,"cvMethod":null,"cvSeasonality":null,"cvShortName":null,"cvUnit":"millimeter","cvWhat":"earth system variable>hydroclimatic variable>hydroclimate rate>precipitation"}]},{"NOAAKeywords":["earth science>paleoclimate>historical>weather observation","earth science>paleoclimate>historical>document"],"fileUrl":"https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/historical/africa/africa2001precip.xls","linkText":"africa2001precip.xls","urlDescription":"Data","variables":[]}],"dataTableName":"Massawa","dataTableNotes":null,"earliestYear":1885,"earliestYearBP":65,"earliestYearCE":1885,"mostRecentYear":1900,"mostRecentYearBP":50,"mostRecentYearCE":1900,"species":[],"timeUnit":"AD"}],"siteName":"Massawa"}],"studyCode":null,"studyName":"19th Century African Instrumental and Documentary Precipitation Data ","studyNotes":"African Rain Gauge and documentary information for the 19th Century.  \n\nAfrican precipitation gauge data:\nThe historical gauge data contains precipitation readings of monthly \ndata for stations in and around Africa.  Each station is listed \nin order, with its location in Latitude (DDDMM), longitude (DDDMM) \nand altitude (meters).  The second line of the header is the mean \nrainfall for each month, with the total rainfall at the last column.  \nStandard deviations (if available) are listed in the third line \nof the header.  Each subsequent line consists of the actual raw data.  \nThe individual record is the 5 letter year code, the 5 letter station \ncode, year, 12 months of data, and the year total. Missing data \nis noted by 9999 for the months and 99999 for the year.   In some \ncases only the year total was available, denoted by the code letter \n'G' after the year (col 15). Each station's data list is terminated \nby a record list of all 9's.  All values are in millimeters per month \nfor the 12 months (Jan to Dec) and the year total in mm/year.\n\nAfrican historical regional data:\nThe entry for each region and year includes five points of information.  \nLeft to right, these are the region number, year, index class (-3 to +3), \nthe number of entries used to produce the index, and the source of the \ninformation.  The right hand column on source uses H to designate \ndocumentary information, G to designate a gauge record, \"regional \nsubstitution\" to indicate a value obtained from a nearby and high-\ncorrelated region, and \"spatial reconstruction\" to indicate that \na technique based on PCs was used to fill in spatial gaps.  \nThe precipitation index associated with all gauge and documentary \nentries is also given in this column. \n\nAfrican historical documentary information: \nThe data set is based on geographic regions, the approximate \ncoordinates of which are given below. The geographical distribution \nof the regions is given in several publications, including \nNicholson 1986 and Nicholson 2001.  Data are presented as local \nprecipitation index, a wetness index ranging from -3 to +3. \nFor each entry there are five categories of information, \nindicated respectively by %A, %F, %K, %D, and %T.  \n%A indicates which of the ninety regions the entry applies to.  \n%F indicates the index value(-3 for extremely dry to +3 for extremely wet). \n%K indicates the geographical area in Africa, usually by country. \n%D indicates the year or years to which the entry applies. \n%T gives the information are climate and weather in the year and, \n   in most cases, a source is given.\n\n","version":"1.0","xmlId":"10265"}