Tropical Atlantic and rainfall variability in Cote d'Ivoire

[1] A statistical analysis is performed between the rainfall anomalies in Cote d'Ivoire ( West Africa) and those of sea surface temperature and pseudo-wind stress in the tropical Atlantic. The correlation structures show that the coastal and northern regions of Cote d'Ivoire are differently related to the meteo-oceanic variables. While the main rainy seasons of these two Ivorian regions are both related to a negative SST/ rain correlation pattern, itself strongly linked to the abnormal position of the intertropical convergence zone, the dry season of the littoral zone is related to a positive SST/ rain correlation pattern which remains offshore of Cote d'Ivoire. Our study illustrates the inverse climatic behaviour observed between the northern and the littoral zones during the two "Atlantic's El Ninos'' of 1968 and 1984.