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Regional water budget tendencies reported by 14C-dated field data are correlated with Late Quaternary cooling and warming phases. Areal frequency distribution analysis of these correlations shows cooling phase negative and warming phase positive water budget tendency to be negatively correlated, with a significantly larger area reacting in cooling phases. Six main phases of climatic and environmental change are deduced from functional time and elevation plots. The only clear phase dislocations of positive and negative water budget tendency in all climatic zones are identified for the period before 23,000 yr B.P. and for the Full Glacial 20,000 to 17,000 yr B.P. There are clear differences in chronological sequences between the subtropics and tropics, but during Holocene very complex time and elevation patterns are apparent. This implies a strong cooling phase intensification of subtropical anticyclonic belts. The aridification gradient rises exponentially from subtropical arid to humid innertropical Africa wheras the humidification gradient shows a reverse structure. Humid tropical Africa is less susceptible to climatic change than semiarid regions and the arid zone is least affected. In those regions being susceptible to both cooling and warming trends non-climatic factors may play an important role in ecosystem fluctuations. Water budget tendency analysis does not indicate large-scale glacial and interglacial dislocations of continental atmospheric circulation patterns.