Marcos Chagas Reporter Agência Brasil
Brasília - A report from Civil Defense officials in the state of Santa Catarina yesterday (January 23) reports that a total of 684,848 people have been negatively impacted by the recent rains that have punished no less than 49 municipalities in the state since January 18 (there are 293 municipalities in the state with a total population of around 6.2 million).
The rainy season in Brazil is characterized by the movement of humidity out of the Amazon diagonally across the country (more or less from northwest to southeast). Because of this climatic feature, contrary to what a lot of people think, the greatest rainfall in Brazil is in the country's southeastern coastal region where the states of Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are located as the heavy, moist clouds from the Amazon dump their load there. This phenomenon is known as the Atlantic Ocean convergence zone.
After causing the disaster in the "região serrano" of the state of Rio de Janeiro (on January 12), the convergence zone shifted slightly to the south, and is now dumping enormous amounts of rain on coastal areas in the states of São Paulo, Paraná and, especially, Santa Catarina.
The weather forecast for Santa Catarina is for the rains to continue through the weekend. And it will be heavy rain, varying from 100 mm to 150 mm in the greater metropolitan area of Florianopolis, most of the coastline and the Vale do Itajaí.
Curiously, as a consequence of La Ninha in the Pacific Ocean, a little further south, in Brazil's southern most state of Rio Grande do Sul, a large area is in a state of emergency because of drought!
Allen Bennett - translator/editor The News in English - content modified