Towards a regional drought monitoring and warning system in southern South America: an assessment of various drought indices for monitoring the 2007-2009 drought in the Argentine Pampas

Abstract

The severe drought in eastern Argentina from late 2007 to early 2009 had important economic impacts. This event was characterized by the unusual combination of high severity, large spatial extent and extended duration of dry conditions. Four indices were compared for the study of dry and wet periods, giving similar behavior. The analysis of this drought were performed with the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The impact on climate-sensitive sectors were analized through maize yields.