Climatology of destructive hailstorms in Brazil

Abstract

Hail is considered to be among the most complex extreme weather phenomena of the atmosphere. Every year, notably in the southern Brazilian States, destructive hailstorms result in serious economic losses and cause a great social impact destroying crops, homes, medical facilities and schools. The aim of this study is to document the spatial, annual, and diurnal variation in destructive hailstorm frequency during a 22year period from 1991 to 2012 in Brazil. The analysis is based on a collection of reports released by the Brazilian National Civil Protection Secretariat – SEDEC. Based on reports of emergency assistance given to the population affected by a disaster, the information discussed in this work is assumed as representative only of destructive hailstorms. The analysis reveals a large spatial variability, with the majority of hailstorm occurrences distributed in the three southernmost Brazilian States. Within those states, the number of hail reports was observed to increase with increasing population density in rural areas. Hailstorms were reported most often in the late afternoon and evening of the winter/spring transition, in agreement with a few other areas in the subtropics with available studies, but different from the majority of studies for temperate zones, which suggest spring/summer as the hail season. Although the results show some discrepancies compared to satellite hail signatures, the findings of this work confirm that southern Brazil is a region prone to the development of strong convective storms, with high annual numbers of destructive hail events.