Abstract: A long lasting and extensive drought event over China was studied, that occurred in 1876-1878 under the background of the cold climate at the end of the Little Ice Age before the global warming. The dynamic process of the occurrence and development of the drought event was recovered from the historical literal records of China in the period by counting the yearly number of drought-hit counties and by plotting the distributions of yearly drought and its associated famine, locust plague and pestilence. This persistent drought disaster spread over 13 provinces with the center covering Shanxi, Henan and Shaanxi provinces, where the continuous non-soaking rain period exceeded 340 days, among which over 200 days was in 1877. The severity of the drought disaster even exceeds that of the drought during 1928-1930 which is considered as the most disastrous event in the 20th century. Besides, it is found that the drought event occurred in 1876-1878 when the sunspots were at the descent phase of the 11th activity period and at the minimum of the 12th activity period; and the El Nin～o was in its high frequency and extremely active period (level S++).

Key words: extreme climatic event, drought, historical climate, meteorological disaster, 1876-1878