The consequences of extreme climate events based on SPI and RAI for the State of Pernambuco Brazil, from 1992 to 2022.
Events based on SPI and RAI for the State of Pernambuco Brazil, from 1992 to 2022.
Extreme events are disastrous for society and have been highlighted in scientific
research due to climate change. However, its detection based on indexes and respective
classification still have some limitations. On the one hand drought events target a lot of people
and produce the most significant economic losses, on the other hand extreme rainfall disasters
result in deaths, homeless, displacement, and injuries. The state of Pernambuco located in NE
of Brazil suffer from floods, landslides and socioeconomic activities impact related to extreme
drought and rainfall. This contribution aims to validate the time series used from Global
Precipitation Measurement (GPM) and rainfall stations showing the consequences of extreme
periods using the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and the rainfall anomaly index (RAI).
The precipitation data validation process demonstrated that 43.24% of the stations presented a
correlation classified as strong positive and 56.76% moderate positive. The SPI index identified
the year of 1993 as extreme for drought (SPI ≤ -2), while the RAI (RAI ≤ -3) identified 1993, 1995,
1998, 1999, 2012 and 2015 and 2020. Only the RAI identified extremes for rain (RAI ≥ 3) that
were the periods of 2000, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2022. The periods identified as
climatic extremes were compared with the types of disasters cataloged in the Brazilian disaster.
The RAI stands out, identifying a greater number of extreme climatic periods. For this reason, it
is highlighted, for this region, the importance of testing more than one index to evaluate
consequences and identify critical periods.