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Large-scale atmospheric conditions associated with heavy rainfall episodes in Southeast Brazil

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Abstract

Heavy rainfall events in austral summer are responsible for almost all the natural disasters in Southeast Brazil. They are mostly associated with two types of atmospheric perturbations: Cold Front (53%) and the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (47%). The important question of what synoptic characteristics distinguish a heavy rainfall event (HRE) from a normal rainfall event (NRE) is addressed in this study. Here, the evolutions of such characteristics are identified through the anomalies with respect to climatology of the composite fields of atmospheric variables. The anomalies associated with HRE are significantly more intense than those associated with NRE in all fundamental atmospheric variables such as outgoing long-wave radiation, sea-level pressure, 500-hPa geopotential, lower and upper tropospheric winds. The moisture flux convergence over Southeast Brazil in the HRE composites is 60% larger than in the NRE composites. The energetics calculations for the HRE that occurred in the beginning of February 1988 strongly suggest that the barotropic instability played an important role in the intensification of the perturbation. These results, especially the intensities of the wind, pressure anomalies, and the moisture convergence are useful for the meteorologists of the Southeast Brazil for forecasting heavy precipitation.

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Abbreviations

CF:

Cold front

SACZ:

South Atlantic convergence zone

ANA:

Agência Nacional das Águas

CPTEC:

Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos

NRE:

Normal rainfall events

HRE:

Heavy rainfall events

SEB:

Southeast Brazil

SP:

São Paulo

RJ:

Rio de Janeiro

MG:

Minas Gerais

ES:

Espírito Santo

GNP:

Gross national product

NDJFM:

November, December, January, February, and March

NCEP-NCAR:

National Centers for Environmental Prediction-National Center for Atmospheric Research

PDO:

Pacific decadal oscillation

OLR:

Outgoing long-wave radiation

SLP:

Sea-level pressure

q :

Specific humidity

u :

Zonal wind component

v :

Meridional wind component

W :

Omega

Z :

Geopotential

AZ:

Zonal available potential energy

AE:

Eddy available potential energy

KZ:

Zonal kinetic energy

KE:

Eddy kinetic energy

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Acknowledgments

The first author was supported by the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQ: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico), Brazil. The second author is an Amazon Senior Fellow of the Foundation of the Support to Research of the State of Amazonas (FAPEAM: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas). The authors thank Dr. José Paulo Bonatti and Dra. Renata Weissmann Borges Mendonça for their help in the energetic calculations. The authors thank the anonymous reviewers who have contributed to the improvement of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil

    Kellen Carla Lima, Prakki Satyamurty & Júlio Pablo Reyes Fernández

  2. INPE, Avenida dos Astronautas, 1758, 12227-010, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil

    Kellen Carla Lima

Authors
  1. Kellen Carla Lima
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  2. Prakki Satyamurty
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  3. Júlio Pablo Reyes Fernández
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Correspondence to Kellen Carla Lima.

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Lima, K.C., Satyamurty, P. & Fernández, J.P.R. Large-scale atmospheric conditions associated with heavy rainfall episodes in Southeast Brazil. Theor Appl Climatol 101, 121–135 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-009-0207-9

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