Author(s)

EUCARIS ESTRADA, HELI A. ARREGOCÉS

Abstract

This research focused on analysing drought trends in a geographically diverse coastal region in northern Colombia (10°76′–11°14′′N, 72°85′–72°71′W) from 1982 to 2022, using a rigorous methodology. We used the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) to study the variability of meteorological drought monthly and annually. Our analysis incorporated precipitation data from the ERA5-Land dataset and monthly precipitation records from four weather stations in the study area. It allowed us to refine the accuracy of the drought index by accounting for bias. The SPI index was calculated considering the 12-month total precipitation accumulation period. Our findings revealed two significant characteristics of estimated surface precipitation in the region: higher precipitation levels were observed between August and November compared to the months from December to April, and a bimodal pattern was identified showing peaks in May and October. Analysis based on the SPI index identified medium and long-term drought trends, with several extreme drought events occurring between 1997–1998 and 2014–2016.

Keywords

meteorological droughts, SPI, ERA5-Land global reanalysis