Flash flooding hits Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro

Heavy downpours have flooded parts of Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, including the neighbourhoods of Botafogo and Jardim Botanico.

The month of April delivers 95mm of rain on average, but in nine hours on Monday night, 246mm of rain fell.

This report came from Copacabana Fort, south of Botafogo and on the peninsula separating the famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. This was the first report of rain this month and, if confirmed, it will mark the highest 24-hour rain total ever recorded in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

The former capital of Brazil can expect rain every month of the year but the “rainy season” lasts from December to March.

As the sun goes north to bring summer to the northern hemisphere, the heaviest rain follows it. The heaviest rain is typically north of Rio. Civil defence officials say heavy rains in northeastern Brazil have killed at least three people and displaced 3,600.

In the state of Piaui, the capital of Teresina, received 77mm of rain in a single night, flooding a neighbourhood and killing three people.

In neighbouring Ceara state, meteorologists have recorded 162.3mm of rain in the city of Granja so far this month. That has caused the Coreau River to flood.

The rainy season in northeast Brazil can last until June while Rio is now entering its dry winter.