The use of alternative sources of meteorological data has become increasingly common, making it possible to evaluate areas with no long or continuous series of meteorological data. In this context, the main objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of data series from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction / National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) for the state of Minas Gerais and verify the possible use of them in the absence of data observations of air temperature and wind
speed. The analyzes were performed by comparing observation data from 17 meteorological stations and reanalysis data of the CFSR and CFSV2 models. From the results of the statistical analysis, it is observed that the air temperature reanalysis data presented a good performance in the region of study. However, wind speed data show a weak correlation. These results show that the air temperature data from these reanalyses have the potential to be used as an alternative source of data. Further studies are suggested regarding the use of wind speed data from these reanalyse
