Rainfall erosivity is a major causative agent of soil erosion in the south region of Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Thus, this study aimed to apply five distributions of probabilities to monthly and annual erosivity and estimate the recurrence time of these values with the best distribution of probability adjusted to the region of Lavras, MG. The precipitation series from 1961 to 2004 was used in the study and the distributions of probabilities were Gumbel, Gamma, Log-normal 2 and 3 parameters and Normal. The distributions Gamma and Gumbel produced the smallest number of non-adequate series, with only one recorded for the month of August. The other distributions produced a larger number of nonadequate series, especially, the Log-normal 2 parameters. Thus, it is recommended that for the calculation of erosivity, a previous assessment of the best distribution for each period of the studied series should be done, despite the data pointing out a considerable performance of the Gumbel distribution.
water erosion; distribution of probabilities; data base
