Agreste

For other uses, see Agreste (disambiguation).

The agreste (Portuguese pronunciation: [aˈɡɾɛstʃi], "countryside") is a narrow zone of Brazil in the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia between the coastal forest zona da mata and the semiarid sertão. The agreste fades out after it reaches Rio Grande do Norte due to the break of the mountain-chain that blocks air currents from the Atlantic ocean. This barrier is what induces high rainfalls in the coastal Atlantic forest zone.

Agreste
Pedra do Cordeiro in the Agreste
The Subregions of Northeast Brazil 1 • Meio-norte, 2 • Sertão, 3 • Agreste, 4 • Zona da Mata
Country	Brazil

Most of the agreste is hilly, its hills becoming higher at south, except near the narrow valley of São Francisco River. This land is mostly used for mixed farming, prevailing fruits, of which melons have especial importance. Like the sertão, the agreste is frequently affected by drought, though generally with less severe effects. Only some highland regions mostly in Pernambuco, where cities like Garanhuns and Triunfo are located, are able to reach temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius for a part of the year, usually coinciding with the south-American winter.

Climate

The climate is hot and sub-humid, with rainfall in the area's principal city of Campina Grande averaging about 700 millimetres per year - ranging from less than 10 millimetres in October and November to about 120 millimetres in May and June.

Campina Grande
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D     27     30 20     41     30 20     74     28 20     94     28 20     118     27 18     119     26 18     84     25 18     59     24 18     24     27 18     13     28 19     16     29 20     19     30 20 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °C █ Precipitation totals in mm Source:
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D     1.1     86 68     1.6     86 68     2.9     82 68     3.7     82 68     4.6     81 64     4.7     79 64     3.3     77 64     2.3     75 64     0.9     81 64     0.5     82 66     0.6     84 68     0.7     86 68 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °F █ Precipitation totals in inches

Guarabira
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D     41     32 22     63     33 22     98     33 22     122     31 21     151     30 21     202     29 20     88     29 19     56     29 19     22     30 20     12     31 21     20     32 22     45     32 22 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °C █ Precipitation totals in mm Source:
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D     1.6     90 72     2.5     91 72     3.9     91 72     4.8     88 70     5.9     86 70     8     84 68     3.5     84 66     2.2     84 66     0.9     86 68     0.5     88 70     0.8     90 72     1.8     90 72 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °F █ Precipitation totals in inches

See also

• History of Brazil
• Brazilian literature
• Drought
• Brazil Socio-Geographic Division
• Sertão
• Droughts
• Tieta do Agreste, a Brazilian novel and film
• Caatinga

References

Nonfiction

• Michael H. Glantz; Currents of Change : El Niño's Impact on Climate and Society; published 1996 by Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-57659-8
• Michael H. Glantz (editor); Drought Follows The Plow: Cultivating Marginal Areas; published 1994 by Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-44252-4
• Fagan, Brian; Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Niño and the Fate of Civilizations; published 2000 by Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-01121-7
• Nicholas G. Arons; Waiting for Rain: The Politics and Poetry of Drought in Northeast Brazil; published 2004 by University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-2433-5
• Euclides da Cunha, Rebellion in the Backlands

Fiction

• Graciliano Ramos, Vidas Secas ("Barren Lives"), novel