Hydrometeorological conditions in the semiarid and east coast regions of Northeast Brazil in the 2012-2017 period

Abstract

Various studies have identified that between 2012 and 2017, Brazil’s semiarid region suffered severe drought. However, few studies have analyzed whether this drought also affected the eastern coastal region of Northeast Brazil (ENEB). Therefore, the objective of this work is to identify rainfall anomalies in these regions and verify the hydrometeorological impact on reservoirs in the 2012-2017 interval. For this purpose, we used precipitation data and atmospheric variables in the period from 1981 to 2017 to investigate the rainy season and associated dynamic patterns, as well as the consequences of these mechanisms on the variation of the water parameters of important reservoirs. The results indicated that rain events in the ENEB during 2012-2017 presented similar climatological behavior, without the characteristic of a drought event as observed in the semiarid region. The meteorological analyses showed that the combination of convergence with moisture over the Atlantic Ocean possibly favored greater frequency of shallow convective rainfall in ENEB, an important factor to explain the absence of generalized negative anomalies in the region. As a consequence, the reservoirs did not suffer from water collapse, unlike in the semiarid region.

Key words
rainy season; water vapor transport; flux divergence; water resources; drought