To understand how the Brazilian climate is divided in its gigantic territory, is first necessary to know the regions of Brazil.

They are about five groups of units (states or districts) of the federacy, congregated in accordance to the territorial proximity and geographic characteristics (climate, relief, vegetation and hydrography). The purpose of this division is only statistic and economic.

Therefore, it doesn’t have any type of political autonomy of the regions. The five Brazilian regions are:

Northeast, Southeast, South, West-Center and North.
Brazil’s climate is, to a large extent, tropical, but the south of the country presents a subtropical climate.

The North region, which is consisted by the states of Amazonia, Acre, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, Tocantins and Amapá, has equatorial climate, factor that confers a good annual rain distribution, with raised temperatures and low annual thermal amplitude to the region.

The Northeast region has a diverse climate, varying from equatorial (Maranhão and part of Piauí); half-barren (the region of Caatinga, in the northeast heart) and tropical, in the center and south of Bahia.
The states of this region are Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Pernambuco, Ceará, Sergipe, Alagoas, Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba.

The West-Center region, with the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Goiás, beyond the Federal District, presents half-humid tropical climate, with detach to the rainy period, that feeds the Pantanal Mato-Grossense.

In the Southeastern region, that includes the states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Rio De Janeiro and Espirito Santo predominates, in the highest regions, a light tropical climate, with four well distinct stations. In the northwest of the state of São Paulo and in the Triângulo Mineiro predominates the half-humid tropical climate, similar to the one of the open pasture in the West-Center.

The South region of the country has a subtropical climate, with low temperatures in the mountain ranges of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, being frequent the formation of frosts and snow occurrence in the region during the winter. Is consisted by the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande Do Sul.

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Equatorial climate (humid and half-humid):

• hot and humid
• low temperature variation during the year
• it includes the Brazilian Amazônia
• it’s a climate dominated by the Continental Equatorial Mass (mEc) in almost all of its extension and during all year. In the littoral part of Amazônia there’s a little influence of the Atlantic Equatorial Mass (mEa) and, some times, during the winter, the cold front reaches the south and southwest of this region, causing a fall of the temperature called friagem

Humid Littoral climate:

• influenced by the Atlantic Tropical Mass (mTa)
• it includes the neighborhoods of the coast since the Rio Grande do Norte until the northern part of the state of São Paulo.

Tropical climate (alternating from humid to dry):

• predominant climate in the biggest part of Brazil
• hot and half-humid climate with a rainy station (summer) and another dry (winter)

Half-barren climate:

• northeast hinterland
• hot climate similar to the barren one
• rains are not regular and badly distributed

Subtropical Climate:

• it encloses the portion of the Brazilian territory in the south of the Tropic of Capricorn
• MTa (Atlantic Tropical Mass) predominates, provoking abundant rains, mainly in the summer. In the winter has the predominance of frontal rains
• Although it rains all year, it has a bigger concentration in the summer

Ceará

In the coast the climate is hot and half-humid while in the mountain ranges it feels cold and humid. In the hinterland is observed the temperature of the half-barren one. During the year, the average temperature in Fortaleza remains above the 26ºC, with exception of July that is about 25,7ºC.

During almost all the year, the higher average temperature in the capital is 29º. With the sun as its ally, the city presents precipitation of rains only during the small space between the months of January and April.

Rio Grande do Norte

The main climate in Rio Grande do Norte is half-barren tropical one, except in the eastern littoral coast and more raised relief regions in the interior of the state, where the humidity is high and the average temperature is 20º C.

In the interior, the thermal averages are around 27º C, with small variations during the year and scarce rains, whose volume does not exceed 800 mm through the year.

The precipitations in the coast reaches from 1,000 to 1,500 mm per year, being more intense in the months of March and June. The highest temperatures usually are registered in February.