Trend analysis in rainfall time series in some Brazilian semiarid cities

Abstract

Nowadays, the climate changes are a frequent issue of the scientific community, and although it occurs on a global scale, its impacts often vary from region to region. The objective of this research was to identify the climatic change trends from rainfall in some Brazilian semiarid cities of the Pernambuco state. The Mann-Kendall and Sen-slope trend tests were applied to detect possible trends in the rainfall time series. In addition, the Pettitt test was also applied to identify abrupt changes in precipitation records represented by break points in the time series. The results showed trends of climatic changes in rainfall in fifteen cities, being observed in some localities the decrease of the tendencies in the rainy season, representing a serious problem that compromises the water supply, suppresses agricultural activities, thus making life difficult for the population, because it's in this short rainy season that the water reservoirs of the region are replenished.