Fig. 2

Climatic variability from 1979 to 2020 in central Chile: A z values of maximum temperature during the austral summer (December to February); B z values of precipitation in winter–spring (May–November). In both climatic series, mean values (± SE) across the drought periods are showed. C Annual Palmer Drought Severity Index for the study region (30–35°S, 70.5–71.0°W) for the period 2000–2020, with the three drought periods highlighted (BMd before megadrought, Md megadrought, Hd hyperdrought). We compared the three periods using percentiles (Px) from the period 1901–2020. In addition, we show the spatial variation of the PDSI in exceptional years using data from the South American Drought Atlas SADA (Morales et al. 2020)