Assessment of rainfall variability and future change in Brazil across multiple timescales

Rainfall variability change under global warming is a crucial issue that may have a substantial impact on society and the environment, as it can directly impact biodiversity, agriculture, and water resources. Observed precipitation trends and climate change projections over Brazil indicate that many sectors of society are potentially highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The purpose of this study is to assess model projections of the change in rainfall variability at various temporal scales over sub-regions of Brazil. For this, daily data from 30 CMIP5 models for historical (1900-2005) and future (2050-2100) experiments under a high-emission scenario are used. We assess the change in precipitation variability, applying a band-pass filter to isolate variability on daily, weekly, monthly, intra-seasonal, and El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) time scales. For historical climate, simulated precipitation is evaluated against observations to establish model reliability. The results show that models largely agree on increases in variability on all timescales in all sub-regions, except on ENSO timescales where models do not agree on the sign of future change. Brazil will experience more rainfall variability in the future that is, drier or more frequent dry periods and wetter wet periods on daily, weekly, monthly, and intra-seasonal timescales, even in sub-regions where future changes in mean rainfall are currently uncertain. This may provide useful information for climate change adaptation across, for example, the agriculture and water resource sectors in Brazil.

Automated summary

This study evaluates model projections of rainfall variability change under global warming in different sub-regions of Brazil, showing a general agreement among models in predicting increased variability across various time scales. Future changes in Brazil are expected to include more rainfall variability, such as drier or wetter periods, even in areas where future changes in mean rainfall are uncertain.