The African baobab is a challenging climate and environmental archive for its semi-arid habitat due to dating uncertainties and parenchyma-rich wood anatomy. Annually resolved F¹⁴C data of tree-ring cellulose (1941–2005) from a tree in Oman show the annual character of the baobab’s growth rings but were up to 8.8 % lower than expected for 1964–1967. Subseasonal δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O patterns reveal years with low average monsoon rain as well as heavy rainfall events from pre-monsoonal cyclones.