The El Niño of 1877-8 was one of the strongest ENSO events of the nineteenth century. Its devastating impacts on parts of Asia, especially India, China and Australia, have been documented, even if the climate record itself is still being recovered. This event occurred at a time when meteorological science was rapidly developing. The number of registering stations around the globe was also steadily increasing, albeit with gaps and problems. However, this event was critical in early understandings of global climatic teleconnections, recognised by scientists around the globe due to its extreme nature.
This paper has two aims. First, it explores the types of archives of societies available to study the 1877-8 event for Singapore and Malaysia, which is a relatively understudied region for this type of investigation. In doing so, it will look at gaps and problems inherent in using these archives. Second, it seeks to uncover the social impacts of this event on what was then the Straits Settlements under British imperial authority. It looks at intersections between climate and health; governance and mitigation of extreme weather, and the event’s influence on the contemporary understanding of climatic and environmental change.