Even as the death toll from unprecedented flooding crossed 100 people, conditions are expected to take a turn for the worse in Brazil’s southern state of Rio Grande do Sul as rain continued to fall Friday — with more expected through the weekend.
Large parts of the southern state will see close to 4 inches of rain this weekend, according to INMET, the National Meteorology Institute.
At least 113 people had died as of Friday morning, according to Rio Grande do Sul Gov. Eduardo Leite, while hundreds of neighborhoods have been devastated and destroyed in the weeklong flooding. There are also 146 people missing, 69,617 people in shelters and more than 330,000 people displaced by the flooding, Leite said. More than 750 people have been injured, he added.
An army tank is used in the rescue works in a flooded area in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil May 10, 2024.
Diego Vara/Reuters
More than 70,000 people and nearly 10,000 animals have been rescued in Rio Grande do Sul, Leite said.
“We cannot say the worst is over,” the governor added.
Aerial view of floods in Eldorado do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, taken on May 9, 2024.
Carlos Fabal/AFP via Getty Images
Volunteers carry dogs that have been evacuated from a flooded area in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil May 10, 2024.
Diego Vara/Reuters
In the state’s capital city, Porto Alegre, the river Guaiba remained at a record 16 feet high on Thursday. The World Meteorological Organization is attributing Brazil’s record rainfall to El Niño, a surface warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean. The same climate phenomenon influences weather patterns in the U.S., frequently bringing above average rainfall to parts of California and dry conditions in the Ohio Valley during the winter months, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Porto Alegre received a little over 10 inches of rainfall in just three days earlier this month, according to INMET, more than two months worth of rain for an average April or May.
More intense extreme rainfall events increase the frequency and scale of flash flooding as the influx of water is more than the infrastructure was built to handle.
Just last month, Dubai experienced unprecedented rainfall, after two years’ worth of rain fell in just 24 hours, records show.
In April, Earth experienced its 11th straight warmest month on record — a preview of the brutal temperatures forecast for the summer, according to a monthly climate report by Copernicus, Europe’s climate change service, released this week.
