In the present context of climate transition under the influence of anthropogenic forcings, a critical issue is proper attribution of climate anomalies, in order to avoid misinterpretations leading to possible maladaptations. Over the last 60 years, the monsoon region of the Sahel has been coping with some of the most severe climate variability in the world, including two decades of persistent excessive rainfall in the 1950s–1960s, followed by two decades of rainfall deficits (see figure on page 12). Recently, there has been a partial recovery with annual rainfall amounts fluctuating around the long-term mean, more evident over the central Sahel than over the western Sahel (Lebel and Ali, 2009). The current period is also characterized by a deficit of rainy days with a rise in extreme rainfall occurrences, indicating the intensification of the hydrological cycle (Giannini et al., 2013; Panthou et al., 2014). This climate is drier in the sense of persistent dry spells compared to the 1950s–1960s, while at the same time there is an increased probability of floods.
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