Credit, NOAA/NASA
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- author, Thais Carranza
- To roll, From BBC News Brasil in São Paulo
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The passage of an extratropical cyclone through southern Brazil is generating intense rain and gales across the country, causing damage in several regions, mainly in the Center-South.
Three deaths were recorded in the town of Palhoça, Santa Catarina, which in the last 24 hours recorded a rainfall accumulation of 137 mm, according to MetSul.
Meteorologists consider the cyclone to present a “very high risk”, with wind gusts expected at 120 km/h.
The GOES-19 meteorological satellite from NASA, the American space agency, shows the size of the cyclone over the southern region seen from space.
Strong winds also hit the state of São Paulo, located in a region still peripheral to the center of the cyclone.
According to energy concessionaire Enel, 36% of customers in the São Paulo metropolitan region were without electricity around 4 p.m., representing more than 2.3 million people whose supply was interrupted.
The Civil Defense of São Paulo records falling trees, roofs and flooding in several municipalities.
In the capital, more than 514 calls for falling trees were recorded until 2 p.m.
The parks in the city of São Paulo were all closed this Wednesday (10/12), according to the town hall, as a “preventative” measure, to guarantee the safety of the population in the face of strong winds.
Credit, NOAA/NASA
Credit, NOAA/NASA
For climate scientists interviewed by BBC News Brasil, although the appearance of cyclones is common in the southern hemisphere, there is no way to deny the impact of climate change on events as intense as this.
“It is not uncommon to have a cyclone at this time of year, what is unusual is the intensity that we are observing. And studies indicate that this scenario is a trend of global warming,” says climatologist José Marengo, who coordinates the National Center for Monitoring and Warning of Natural Disasters (Cemaden).
In recent years, several cyclones have been recorded in Brazil, most of them accompanied by intense rains and gusts of wind, mainly in the southern region.
The most recent was recorded in November, causing the formation of a tornado that struck Paraná and destroyed 90% of the city of Rio Bonito do Iguaçu, in the interior of the state.
Six people died and more than a thousand residents were left homeless. Winds reached 250 km/h.
With information from Iara Diniz, from BBC News Brasil in São Paulo
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