TEMPORAL VARIABILITY IN THE LENGTH OF NO-RAIN SPELLS IN ARGENTINA

OLGA PENALBA AND MARÍA PAULA LLANO

Foz de iguazu

Conferencia; 8th International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography Society; 2006

The analysis of daily rainfall in Argentina is a subject of great interest owing to the hydrological problems. This interest is not merely climatological; it must be considered when we are designing hydrologic systems, managing agricultural and natural resources. Central- northeastern Argentina belongs to the La Plata Basin. Extreme events can cause enormous losses in the agricultural and cattle raising sector. In particular, any change in the probability of no rain spell would cause significant damage to agriculture and hydrology.For the present study, our attention is to analyze the length of the no-rain spells, the number of days that comprising them and their temporal variability, specially evaluate changes before and after the 1970?s.