Drought Assessment in São Francisco River Basin, Brazil: Characterization through SPI and Associated Anomalous Climate Patterns

Aline A. Freitas, Anita Drumond, Vanessa S.B. Carvalho, Michelle S. Reboita, Benedito C. Silva, Cintia B. Uvo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The São Francisco River Basin (SFRB) is one of the main watersheds in Brazil, standing out for generating energy and consumption, among other ecosystem services. Hence, it is important to identify hydrological drought events and the anomalous climate patterns associated with dry conditions. The Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) for 12 months was used to identify hydrological drought episodes over SFRB 1979 and 2020. For these episodes, the severity, duration, intensity, and peak were obtained, and SPI-1 was applied for the longest and most severe episode to identify months with wet and dry conditions within the rainy season (Nov–Mar). Anomalous atmospheric and oceanic patterns associated with this episode were also analyzed. The results revealed the longest and most severe hydrological drought episode over the basin occurred between 2012 and 2020. The episode over the Upper portion of the basin lasted 103 months. The results showed a deficit of monthly precipitation up to 250 mm in the southeast and northeast regions of the country during the anomalous dry months identified through SPI-1. The dry conditions observed during the rainy season of this episode were associated with an anomalous high-pressure system acting close to the coast of Southeast Brazil, hindering the formation of precipitating systems.

Original languageEnglish
Article number41
JournalAtmosphere
Volume13
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022 Jan

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), the Minas Gerais Research Funding Foundation (FAPEMIG), and the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). We would like to thank ECMWF and CPC for providing the data. The authors would like to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers.

Funding Information:
Funding: This work is part of the project GlobalHydroPressure (EU Water JPI). A.A.F. and V.S.B.C. acknowledge the support received by the Minas Gerais Research Funding Foundation—FAPEMIG (ID-11831). V.S.B.C., M.S.R. and B.C.S. also acknowledge FAPEMIG (APQ 04377-18). A.D. acknowledges the support from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (100186/2021-1). C.B.U. acknowledge the support received from the Swedish Research Council FORMAS, Grant No. 2018-02379).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Water Engineering
  • Oceanography, Hydrology, Water Resources

Free keywords

  • Drought
  • SPI
  • São Francisco River Basin

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