Viability of CLIGEN in the climatic conditions of Parana state, Brazil

Studies on hydrology, agro-meteorology, soil loss and climate change scenarios depend on weather information, which may not be available. Weather generators, such as the CLIGEN, can synthesize daily climate series statistically similar to the observed data. The objective of this study was to evaluate the CLIGEN in generating series in the climatic conditions of Parana, Brazil, which show transition between Cfa and Cfb climates. Observed data from 20 weather stations from 1975 to 2009 were compared with synthetic series generated with the same number of years. Mean and standard deviation of the number of wet days, daily precipitation, normalized storm peak intensity, solar radiation, maximum and minimum temperatures and dew point were analysed. The coefficient of determination was less than 0.91 in two stations. Under the evaluated conditions, the CLIGEN showed restrictions to simulate the normalized storm peak intensity and, for the remaining variables, it was shown to be viable to synthesize daily climate series statistically similar to those in the observed data.