Standardized Drought Indices for Pre-Summer Drought Assessment in Tropical Areas
1
Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores, Unidad Mérida, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ucu 97357, Mexico
2
Escuela de Física, Centro de Investigaciones Geofísicas y Centro de Investigación en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Jose 11501-2060, Costa Rica
3
Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán, Merida 97205, Mexico
4
Instituto de Geografía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, Mexico
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Atmosphere 2020, 11(11), 1209; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11111209
Received: 17 September 2020
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Revised: 3 November 2020
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Accepted: 4 November 2020
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Published: 9 November 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Central America and Caribbean Hydrometeorology and Hydroclimate)
The main climatic indices used for the determination of pre-summer drought severity were developed for temperate zones with very different climatic conditions from those found in the tropical climate zones, particularly with respect to seasonal rainfall variations. The temporal evolution of pre-summer drought leads the authors to compute the indices for each year over a defined period according to the climatic normals of each meteorological station and to consider the months inside the dry episode differently, according to the law of emptying the water reserves. As a function of this, standardized drought indices are proposed for the evaluation of the pre-summer drought in tropical zone. Two new indices were tested: one developed from precipitation and the other also considering temperature. These indices were validated by correlation with Advanced very-high-resolution radiometer (AVHRR) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series and used to identify the most severe drought conditions in the Yucatan Peninsula. The comparison between the indices and their temporal variations highlighted the importance of temperature in the most critical events and left indications of the impact of global warming on the phenomenon.
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Keywords:
drought; tropical climate; precipitation; temperature; Meso America
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MDPI and ACS Style
Romero, D.; Alfaro, E.; Orellana, R.; Hernandez Cerda, M.-E. Standardized Drought Indices for Pre-Summer Drought Assessment in Tropical Areas. Atmosphere 2020, 11, 1209. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11111209
AMA Style
Romero D, Alfaro E, Orellana R, Hernandez Cerda M-E. Standardized Drought Indices for Pre-Summer Drought Assessment in Tropical Areas. Atmosphere. 2020; 11(11):1209. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11111209
Chicago/Turabian StyleRomero, David, Eric Alfaro, Roger Orellana, and Maria-Engracia Hernandez Cerda. 2020. "Standardized Drought Indices for Pre-Summer Drought Assessment in Tropical Areas" Atmosphere 11, no. 11: 1209. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11111209
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