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Abstract Rainfall and river indices for both the northern and southern Amazon were used to identify and explore long‐term climate variability on the region. From a statistical analysis of the hydrometeorological series, it is concluded that no systematic unidirectional long‐term trends towards drier or wetter conditions have been identified since the 1920s. The rainfall and river series showing variability at inter‐annual scales linked to El Niño Southern Oscillation was detected in rainfall in the northern Amazon. It has a low‐frequency variability with a peak at − 30 years identified in both rainfall and river series in the Amazon. The presence of cycles rather than a trend is characteristic of rainfall in the Amazon. These cycles are real indicators of decadal and multi‐decadal variations in hydrology for both sides of the basin. Sea‐level pressure (SLP) gradients between tropics and sub topics were explored in order to explain variability in the hydrometeorology of the basin. Sea surface temperature (SST) gradients inside the tropical Atlantic and between the tropical Atlantic and the sub‐tropical Atlantic have been assessed in the context of changes in rainfall in the Amazon, as compared to northern Argentina. Trends in SSTs in the subtropical Atlantic are linked to changes in rainfall and circulation in northern Argentina, and they seem to be related to multi‐decadal variations of rainfall in the Amazon. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
José A. Marengo (Wed,) studied this question.