The main objective of this work is to evaluate how much the rain on the northeast of the Pernambuco State is due to the Sea Surface Temperature anomalies (SSTA) of Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Accumulated monthly rain data registered at 15 rain gauges distributed throughout the studied region during the period from 1963 to 1992 and the 1945 to 1993 SSTA series extracted from the version of Comprehensive Ocean-Atmospheric Data Set (COADS) were used. It was verified that the studied region presents a strong positive correlation with the study area of the South Atlantic Basin and a negative correlation with the Equatorial Pacific Basin. However, the SSTA in the Atlantic region showed a stronger correlation compared to the correlation in the Pacific at the same significance level. This might be due to the proximity of the Atlantic analyzed area. It is suggested that an anomalous heating on this Atlantic area may cause extreme rain events on the east coast of Northeast Region.
El-Niño South Oscillation; thermal gradient; Atlantic Ocean
