Rains Pound Southeast Brazil With Alerts in São Paulo and Minas Gerais

Overview

• The national weather service kept alerts active, with a yellow notice for the city of São Paulo and an orange accumulated-rain alert for 31 municipalities in northern, central and northwestern Minas Gerais.
• São Paulo’s state civil defense classified 46 municipalities in the Vale do Paraíba, Serra da Mantiqueira, Litoral Norte and the Bragantina region at medium risk for flooding and landslides through Sunday.
• Heavy rain already caused disruptions in Minas Gerais, including about 60 mm in Governador Valadares with a flooded underpass, channel damage, and a bus crash in a waterlogged street.
• In Belo Horizonte, a video captured a woman swept by runoff during Thursday’s storm and the municipal civil defense issued a geological alert for landslide risk now in effect into next week.
• Forecasts cite a slow front reinforced by Amazon moisture keeping instability across the Southeast and parts of the Center-West this weekend, with models noting potential intensification over Mato Grosso do Sul from a low-pressure area in Paraguay.