In this study, monthly rainfall time-series with 80 years of collected data were analyzed and adjusted using gamma distribution in order to determine the expected monthly rainfall for Lages, in the State of Santa Cararina. The method of adjustment of model was used to estimate α and β parameters of gamma distribution, and Kolmogorov-Smirnov's test assessed the model's fitting to the data. Gamma distribution fitted to observed data of all months of the year (p < 0.05). From the adjusted distribution, the monthly rainfall was estimated for the probability levels of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 75, 80, 90 and 95%, which correspond to occurrence of probable minimum precipitation P(X > x). The results showed that the monthly mean rainfall, for all months of the year, occurred at probability level of 31.93% with variation coefficient of 3.63%. Considering these results, it is proved that the found mean values should not be used as parameters in agricultural projects. For all months of the year, the difference between monthly mean rainfall and probable rainfall were 64.49 mm (51.3%) and 73.03 mm (58.1%), at probability levels of 75 and 80% respectively.
irrigation; dependent precipitation; gamma distribution
