Last Glacial Maximum conditions in southern Africa: Are we any closer to understanding the climate of this time period?

The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (21 +/- 2 ka) is an important period for which to understand past climatic and environmental conditions. In particular it is a key time-slice for evaluating the performance of numerical climate model simulations of glacial palaeoclimates using palaeoenvironmental data sets. However, our palaeoenvironmental data sets and reconstructions of climatic conditions at the LGM are still debated in certain regions. This is the case for southern Africa, despite more than half a century of research since early conceptual models of palaeoclimate were proposed. The greatest debates are about the spatial patterning of relatively wetter and drier conditions than present and the position of the mid-latitude westerlies at the LGM. Different patterns emerge from: separate syntheses of palaeoenvironmental proxies, from different numerical model simulations and from comparisons of the two. In this review of the progress over half a century of research in southern Africa: (1) a brief historical review of key conceptual models is given, (2) key points of conflict that emerge in synthesis of palaeoenvironmental proxy records are outlined and (3) numerical model simulations are considered. From these, some points for future progress are suggested.