Determination of droughts and high floods of the Bermejo River (Argentina) based on documentary evidence (17th to 20th century)

•The extraordinary swells have progressively increased since 1800.•The scarcity of large droughts since 1891 is notable.•Document shows no significant correlation between the Mendoza and Bermejo Rivers.•The frequency of extraordinary swells has increased at the end the 20th.

SummaryThis study reconstructs a series of droughts and high flow volumes of the Bermejo River from the 17th to 20th century based on a content analysis of historic documentary evidence, which is calibrated with instrumental climate data. The historic data series shows an increase in the frequency of extraordinarily high waters beginning in the 19th century and a significant decrease in extreme droughts beginning in 1890. The data are compared to variations in the Mendoza River for the same period, which show that there was a long-standing lack of correlation between the rivers.