Skip to main content

1876–1878 severe drought in North China: Facts, impacts and climatic background

Chinese Science Bulletin volume 55, pages 3001–3007 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Based on the reconstructed precipitation series in North China from historical documents, the 1876–1878 drought was identified as the most severe and extreme one in North China over the past 300 years. Meanwhile, the spatial patterns of seasonal and annual precipitation during 1876–1877 were analyzed and the social and economic impacts related with this drought event were evaluated according to the descriptions in the historical documents. The results indicated that this long-lasting drought started by the spring of 1876 and did not stop until the spring of 1878. Within the three years, the harvest failures brought the rice price increased to 5–10 times than that in the normal year, and the total population in the five provinces over North China decreased by more than 20 million due to a large number of dead people and migrations. In addition, related investigations suggested that the 1876–1878 drought was prevalent worldwide, which has possible link with abnormal high SST in the equatorial central and eastern Pacific, strong El Niño episode and positive AAO anomalies.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

References

  1. Fye F K, Stahle D W, Cook E R. Paleoclimatic analogs to twentieth-century moisture regimes across the United States. Bull Amer Meteorol Soc, 2003, 84:901–909

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Woodhouse C A, Overpeck J T. Two thousand years of drought variability in central United States. Bull Amer Meteorol Soc, 1998, 79:2693–2714

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Ma Z J, Gao Q H. Climate changes of China in the quaternary period and analysis on drought disasters of North China in the future (in Chinese). Quat Sci, 2004, 24:245–251

    Google Scholar 

  4. Aceituno P, Prieto M D, Solari M E, et al. The 1877–1878 El Niño episode: Associated impacts in South America. Clim Change, 2009, 92:389–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Zheng J Y, Wang W C, Ge Q S, et al. Precipitation variability and extreme events in eastern China during the past 1500 years. Terr Atmos Ocean Sci, 2006, 17:579–592

    Google Scholar 

  6. Man Z M. Climatic background of the severe drought in 1877 (in Chinese). Fudan J (Social Sci), 2000, 6:28–35

    Google Scholar 

  7. Zhang D. Variation of dry-wet climate and severe drought events as revealed in the climate records of China over the past 1000 years (in Chinese). Sci Technol Rev, 2004, 8:47–49

    Google Scholar 

  8. Liang E Y, Shao X M, Kong Z C, et al. The extreme drought in the 1920s and its effect on tree growth deduced from tree ring analysis: A case study in North China. Ann For Sci, 2003, 60:145–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Zheng J Y, Hao Z X, Ge Q S. Reconstruction of annual precipitation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River for the last 300 years. Sci China Ser D-Earth Sci, 2005, 48:2182–2197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences. Yearly Charts of Dryness/Wetness in China for the Last 500-Year Period (in Chinese). Beijing: Map Press, 1981. 209–210

    Google Scholar 

  11. Dai A, Trenberth K E, Qian T. A global data set of Palmer Drought Severity Index for 1870–2002: Relationship with soil moisture and effects of surface warming. J Hydrometeorol, 2004, 5:1117–1130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Zhang P Y. Historical climate change in China (in Chinese). Jinan: Shandong Science and Technology Press, 1996. 533

    Google Scholar 

  13. Smith T M, Reynolds R W. Extended reconstruction of global sea surface temperatures based on COADS data (1854–1997). J Clim, 2003, 16:1495–1510

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Zhang D. A Compendium of Chinese Meteorological Records of the Last 3000 Years (in Chinese). Nanjing: Jiangsu Education Press, 2004. 3343–3407

    Google Scholar 

  15. Cao S J. History of Population in China (Vol. 5, Qing Dynasty) (in Chinese). Shanghai: Fudan University Press, 2001. 647–689

    Google Scholar 

  16. He H W. The Great North China Drought Famine in the Early Guangxu Reign (1876–1879) (in Chinese). Hongkong: The Chinese University Press, 1980. 33

    Google Scholar 

  17. Gao L C. The historical reason of the northeast immigration in modern China (in Chinese). J Northeast Normal Univ (Social Sci), 2005, 2:29–35

    Google Scholar 

  18. Nicholls N. Historical El Niño/Southern Oscillation variability in the Australasian region. In: Diaz H F, Markgraf V, eds. El Niño Historical and Paleoclimatic Aspects of the Southern Oscillation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 151–174

    Google Scholar 

  19. Herweijer C, Seager R, Cook E R. North American droughts of the mid to late nineteenth century: A history, simulation and implication for mediaeval drought. Holocene, 2006, 16:159–171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Kiladis G N, Diaz H F. An analysis of the 1877–78 ENSO episode and comparison with 1982–83. Mon Weather Rev, 1986, 114: 1035–1047

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Quinn W H. A study of Southern Oscillation-related climatic activity for AD 622-1900 incorporating Nile River flood data. In: Diaz H F, Markgraf V, eds. El Niño Historical and Paleoclimatic Aspects of the Southern Oscillation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 119–149

    Google Scholar 

  22. Gergis J L, Fowler A M. A history of ENSO events since AD 1525: Implications for future climate change. Clim Change, 2009, 92: 343–387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. D’Arrigo R, Allan R, Wilson R, et al. Pacific and Indian Ocean climate signals in a tree-ring record of Java monsoon drought. Int J Climatol, 2008, 28:1889–1901

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Lu R Y. Interannual variation of North China rainfall in rainy season and SSTs in the equatorial eastern Pacific. Chinese Sci Bull, 2005, 50:2069–2073

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Li X P, Luo Y, Guo P W, et al. Relationship of the SSTA temporal variation in the middle and east equatorial Pacific in spring and summer to East Asia summer monsoon (in Chinese). J Appl Meteorol Sci, 2006, 17:176–182

    Google Scholar 

  26. Wang H J, Fan K. Central-north China precipitation as reconstructed from the Qing dynasty: Signal of the Antarctic Atmospheric Oscillation. Geophys Res Lett, 2005, 32,L24705, doi:10.1029/2005GL024562

  27. Fan K, Wang H J. The anomalous Antarctic Oscillation and the summer precipitation over Eastern China in 2006 (in Chinese). J Appl Meteorol Sci, 2006, 17:383–384

    Google Scholar 

  28. Ma Z G. The interdecadal dry/wet trend and shift of North China and their relationship to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Chinese Sci Bull, 2007, 50:2130–2139

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    ZhiXin Hao, JingYun Zheng, GuoFeng Wu, XueZhen Zhang & QuanSheng Ge

  2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    GuoFeng Wu

Authors
  1. ZhiXin Hao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. JingYun Zheng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. GuoFeng Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. XueZhen Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. QuanSheng Ge
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to QuanSheng Ge.

About this article

Cite this article

Hao, Z., Zheng, J., Wu, G. et al. 1876–1878 severe drought in North China: Facts, impacts and climatic background. Chin. Sci. Bull. 55, 3001–3007 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-010-3243-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-010-3243-z

Keywords

  • 1876–1878
  • severe drought
  • North China
  • social impact
  • climatic background