The objective of this study was to establish a rain parameter that can be used to express the potential capability of the rain to cause soil erosion. Datafrom 1981 to 1989 were used in simple linear corre letions among 13 rain characteristics and soil tosses using individual erosive rains in an Alfisol soil of Alagoinha Experimental Station of "Empresa Estadual de Pesquisa Agropecuária", State of Paraíba, Brazil. The rain characteristics tested were: total precipitation; total kinetic energy; kinetic energy higher than 25 milimeters ; rain intensity at 5, 10, 15, 30 and 60 minutes; product between kinetic energy and rain intensity at 5, 10, 15, 30 and 60 minutes. The corre lations obtained among rain characteristics and soil tosses, indicated that the rain characteristic energy-intensity in 15 minutes is better correlated to soil losses. However, there was no difference between energy-intensity in 15 minutes and energy-intensity in 30 minutes characteristics. The médium year value of the erosivity (EI30) obtained for Alagoinha during the studied period was 3.423 MJ.mm/ha, h.
soil erosion; kinetic energy of rains
