Climatic changes on a regional scale are very divergent and not always accompany the global tendency. Statistical methods were used to analyze the patterns of seasonal and annual rainfall and dry spells in 21 hydrological stations located in the State of Paraná, southern Brazil. The results obtained by the Standard Normal Homogeneity Test indicated that there were no significant changes in the climatic patterns of rainfall. But the regression analysis and Kendall test showed that, in recent decades, the amount of annual rainfall has increased from 16 to 42 mm/decade in the eastern half of Paraná state, especially in the spring. The same trend was observed in the intensity of extreme daily rainfall events, but municipalities and seasons with this feature did not strictly follow the trends presented in the amount of rainfall. The number of significant trends (predominantly negative) is less for the dry spells lasting 5 to 10 days with accumulated rainfall <10 mm, but more noticeable in the spring and on an annual scale.
Climate trends; extreme rain; point of discontinuity
