Drought -- National Drought Mitigation Center

 

Title

The Climatic Impact of La Niña-related Droughts in Entre Rios (Argentina)

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

July 2000

Comments

Published in Drought Network News Vol. 12, No. 2, Summer 2000. Published by the International Drought Information Center and the National Drought Mitigation Center, School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

The National Institute of Tecnologia Agropecuaria (INTA) at Parana, Entre Rios (Argentina), has a farming experimental station (E.E.A.) located at 31.5°S and 60.31°W, 110m above sea level. A meteorological observatory has existed at the site since 1934.

The region has a temperate humid climate and receives an average annual rainfall total of 1,000 mm. Distribution is monsoonal, with October–April rains accounting for 73% of the annual total.

Since August 1998, the area has been affected by La Niña, and experts expected the conditions of the cold episode to persist into 2000. The La Niña event in the humid Pampean region of Argentina is associated with negative anomalies of winter temperatures and below-normal precipitation in the June–December period (Magrin, 1998). From August 1 to November 30, 1999 (122 days), the area recorded its lowest precipitation since 1934 (Figure 1; Table 1).