El Nino-Southern Oscillation impact on rainfall in Uruguay

Abstract

It is found that years with El Nino events tend to have higher than average rainfall, especially from November to the next January. Further, years with high values of the Southern Oscillation index (SOI) tend to have lower than average rainfall, especially from October through December. These findings are in general agreement with previous studies. It is also found that the period from March through July tends to have higher than average rainfall after El Nino years and lower than average rainfall after high-SOI years. For the southern part of Uruguay, the wet anomalies during El Nino events are relatively weak, but the dry anomalies during high-SOI events are significant for the two periods identified. The dry anomalies disappear, and even reverse, during January and February after high-SOI years. This feature does not have a symmetric counterpart during January and February after El Nino years. -from Authors