DROUGHT

FRIEND/AMIGO has made remarkable progress in this topic over the past decade. The working group in charge of this activity has many valuable scientific and applicable contributions to the Meso American and Caribbean regions and particularly to each country in this geographical area. A detailed evaluation of the drought behaviour in each Meso American and Caribbean countries is a relevant study resulting from this work.

This product facilitates the analysis of the evolution of the drought in Meso America and the Caribbean by means of the study of the behavior of the number of consecutive months with drought. The main techniques used for the determination of the behavior of the precipitation are the Standardized Deviation and the Deciles criteria.  According to the behavior of the rain, the periods are classified in Light deficit (D), Moderate deficit (M) or Severe deficit, (S), which are based in the international and traditional practice in different countries, and taking into account the experience acquired in the own development of the work in the region. This analysis is strongly based on meteorological and climatological criteria linked with the hydrological analysis.

The results on minimum hydrological phenomena can be accessed and downloaded through Internet (http://www.met.inf.cu/sequia/amigo.asp). LAC FRIEND AMIGO project is working in a drought regional prediction service and it is expanding the drought study to the South American countries.