El Niño/La Niña and Sahel precipitation during the Middle Holocene

Simulations with a synchronously coupled atmosphere‐land‐ocean‐sea ice model indicate El Niño/La Niña‐like events in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean during the middle Holocene (6 ka) with similar intensities and frequencies as at present (0 ka). July‐August‐September Sahel precipitation shifts northward as expected from proxy data. For present‐day, interannual‐decadal variability of western Sahel precipitation is correlated with both Pacific El Niño/La Niña sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies and the Atlantic dipole. Teleconnections at 6 ka between Sahel precipitation and El Niño/La Niña SST anomalies are absent with tropical Atlantic SSTs asserting a dominant influence. These results illustrate potential problems with using present‐day teleconnection patterns in interpreting past climate variability from proxy data.