CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 413Climate variability and modelsHydrology and Drought AnalysisHydrology and Watershed Management Studies

Variability of precipitation in the Atacama Desert: its causes and hydrological impact

Houston, John·2006·International Journal of Climatology
DOI 10.1002/joc.1359
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

An analysis of the variability of rainfall at 27 stations and run-off at 4 stations between 18° and 28°S in the Atacama Desert has been carried out. A diagonal boundary zone between summer- and winter-dominated areas is related to the provenance of the rainfall: Amazonia to the north and east, and Pacific moisture to the south. It is shown that winter rainfall tends to be higher during El Niño years, while heavy summer rainfall tends to be more common during La Niña. However, rather than the precipitation being directly controlled by El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), previous studies have shown that it is the regional synoptic conditions towards the source areas that largely control temporal precipitation variations, and these are in turn either facilitated or inhibited by ENSO. The spatio-temporal variability of precipitation leads to a complex hydrological regime. Perennial rivers in the north and central Atacama Desert tend to flood in summer, especially during La Niña conditions, from source to sea. Perennial rivers in the south tend to flood in summer, but as a result of melt from the previous years snowfall, especially during El Niño conditions, again from source to sea. However, while inland areas may also experience flooding of ephemeral rivers in summer associated with La Niña, coastal areas on the other hand experience winter flooding of ephemeral rivers associated with El Niño. Surface water flood events, and groundwater recharge events reported in the literature, are generally less frequent than ENSO events, confirming the requirement for specific synoptic conditions and making the use of averages unsound for present-day hydrological studies and water resource evaluations. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1002/joc.1359

Cites

40 of 40 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Fluctuations in water table and brine concentration, influenced by reinjection as well as abstraction, can affect the evaporation rate.

    “Fluctuations in the water table and brine concentration, influenced by reinjection as well as abstraction, can affect the evaporation rate (Houston, 2006;Marazuela et al., 2019bMarazuela et al., , 2020b)).”

    From Life cycle assessment and water use impacts of lithium production from salar deposits: Challenges and opportunities (2024) · cites this paper as Houston, 2006

  • The evaporation rate increases as brine concentration decreases, and has an exponentially decreasing relationship with depth; once the water table is ≥0.5 m below the surface, evaporation reduces significantly.

    “The evaporation rate increases as brine concentration decreases, and has an exponentially decreasing relationship with depth, once the water table is ≥0.5 m below the surface evaporation reduces significantly (Houston, 2006;Marazuela et al., 2020b).”

    From Life cycle assessment and water use impacts of lithium production from salar deposits: Challenges and opportunities (2024) · cites this paper as Houston, 2006

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Houston, J.
Corresponding author
Houston, John
ORCID
Houston, John
Venue
International Journal of Climatology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2006
Volume
26
Issue
15
Pages
2181-2198
ISSN
  • 0899-8418 (ISSN-L)
  • 1097-0088
DOI
10.1002/joc.1359
OpenAlex
W2060098961
Cited by
413
References
40
Citations by year
2026: 22 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 38 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 62 · 2019: 47 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 10
FWCI
2.76
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
doi.wiley.com/10.1002/tdm_license_1.1 (tdm, 3530 d)
Locations
International Journal of Climatology (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Hydrology and Drought Analysis
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies
Keywords
rainfall variability, Atacama Desert, ENSO, El Niño, La Niña, seasonal rainfall, synoptic conditions, river flooding, ephemeral streams, groundwater recharge, hydrological regime

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review