Variability and changes of daily climate extremes over the core crop region of Argentina

MIGUEL A. LOVINO; OMAR V. MÜLLER; BERBERY, ERNESTO H.; GABRIELA V. MÜLLER; MARÍA DEL VALLE VENENCIO; LEANDRO SGROI; MARIA AGOSTINA BRACALENTI

Cartagena

Congreso; XI Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Española de Climatologia.; 2018

Variability and changes in climate extremes affect the core crop region of Argentina and may increase its vulnerability leading to unprecedented disasters. This study investigates the long-term changes and interannual variabilityof daily temperature and precipitation climate extremes and assesses to what extent ERA-Interim and NCEP2reanalyses reproduce the observed variability in the recent past. Climate extremes are characterized by severaltemperature and precipitation indices evaluated in space and time. Advanced statistical methods were used toextract the leading modes, the trends and their spatial distribution. Temperature extremes are changing towardwarmer conditions. As well, intense precipitation events increased steadily since 1970. ERA-Interim successfullyrepresents temperature extremes and reproduce dry spells in space and time, while NCEP2 presents systematicbiases. Although reanalysis may add valuable information for temperature and precipitation extremes in areas ofscarce observations, they still need to be used with caution.