Lack of rain in February causes mild drought to advance in the Central-West region of Paraná.

Below-average rainfall caused the advance of weak drought in the Central-West of Paraná in February 2026. This is the result of the Drought Monitor of the National Water Agency (ANA), published this Monday (16). The study is carried out in partnership with several institutes, including the Paraná Environmental Technology and Monitoring System (Simepar).

Throughout the month of February, six Simepar weather stations recorded rainfall totals below 60 mm. The lowest volume was in Santo Antônio da Platina, where the historical average rainfall for February is 137 mm, and the weather station recorded only 8.2 mm. The city has not experienced rainfall exceeding 5 mm in a single day since January 1st.

“The summer of 2025 and 2026 was marked in the Midwest, part of the Southwest, and the microregion of Cascavel by regular rainfall. It is the period with the most rainfall in the year; however, this summer the rains were not well distributed. There was no frequent activity from precipitation systems, so the quarter ended with rainfall below the historical average. We had a typical summer in terms of temperature, but the rains did not come as they would in a normal year,” explains Reinaldo Kneib, meteorologist at Simepar.

In addition to the advance of mild drought in the Midwest, the Drought Monitor continues to record moderate drought in the Northern Pioneer region, severe drought in some cities bordering the state of São Paulo, and mild drought in the rest of Paraná – with the exception of the Northwest, far West, and far Southwest.

The impacts are both short-term and long-term in Northern Paraná, meaning they could harm agriculture and water supply; and short-term in other areas, meaning they only affect agriculture.

“The negative precipitation anomaly culminated in an advance of the weak drought, which was already observed in January in the Southwest and Central regions of the state. It advanced to the east of the West region, a large part of the Southwest as well, and to the south of the Northwest region of the state. We are talking about Cianorte, Campo Mourão and part of Cascavel. The absence of rain was caused by the action of more dry air masses, instead of a large concentration of humidity in the atmosphere, which is expected for this time of year, but did not happen,” explains Reinaldo.

Simepar's climate intelligence platform, Simeagro, indicates that the lack of rain has caused delays in the germination of the second corn crop in the North and West regions.

“It is possible to see a delay in plant growth already caused by the lack of rain, which persisted until the beginning of March. Rainfall with slightly higher volumes is expected in the coming days, but even so, there is a high risk that delayed plant growth will cause future problems with the onset of new periods of heat,” explains Bernardo Lipski, an agronomist at Simepar.

Monitor

The Drought Monitor began in 2014, focusing on the semi-arid region, which had been suffering from the most severe drought in the last 100 years since 2012. Since 2017, ANA (National Water Agency) has been coordinating the project among the institutions involved and overseeing the process of creating the maps.

Every month, Simepar analyzes the South and Southeast regions using data such as precipitation, air temperature, vegetation index, reservoir levels, and evapotranspiration data (the relationship between temperature and water evaporation). Every three months, Simepar also coordinates the creation of the complete map.

In addition to the records in Paraná, in Brazil, the February Drought Monitor points to extreme drought in the north of the Northeast; severe drought also in the Northeast and in areas of Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Goiás; moderate drought in areas of the Northeast, North, Midwest and Southwest of the country; and weak drought mainly in the South, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais and the Amazon region.