The objective of this work was to determine the rainfall erosivity, hydrological patterns, return period and probability of occurrence of erosive rainfalls in Santa Rosa in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, based on the period from 1975 to 2003. For each erosive rainfall, the time was registered along with the accumulated amount and the data processed by the software CHUVEROS, which calculates the EI30 index and the monthly and annual precipitation, as well as determining the hydrological pattern of each rainfall. The period from October to March concentrates 60% of annual erosivity. The highest peak in the erosive potential occurs in February (1,345 MJ mm ha-1 h-1), while July and August are the months of smaller erosive potential (525 - 550 MJ mm ha-1 h-1). On average, the advanced, intermediary and delayed patterns have 52, 24 e 24% of the number of erosive rainfalls per year, while these patterns correspond to 58, 23 and 19%, respectively, of the annual volume of erosive rainfalls and 62, 21 and 17% of the average annual erosivity. The mean annual index of erosivity which represents the "R" factor of USLE for Santa Rosa, RS, was 11,217 MJ mm ha-1 h-1 year-1, which is expected to occur once every 2.3 years, with a probability of 43.3%.
kinetic energy; rainfall erosive potential; rainfall intensity; R factor; USLE
