September Rains Break Records Across São Paulo State

Overview

• The Mirante de Santana station in the city of São Paulo recorded 253.8 millimeters through Sept. 14, the highest September total in its official series that began in 1943.
• The Campinas region logged about 290 millimeters in the first half of September, the wettest September on record for that IAC series, which dates to 1890 and surpassed the 1923 total.
• Itapetininga reached 259.5 millimeters through Sept. 19, a decade-high reading that local agencies and media described as unprecedented and that coincided with road collapses and other infrastructure damage.
• The state Defesa Civil activated a Gabinete de Crise and research centers including IAC, Cepagri and Ciiagro are monitoring near-real-time automated station data while issuing alerts because forecasts show more heavy, continuous rain.
• Scientists say the event may be linked to the current El Niño and long-term climate change but that formal attribution will take additional study; in the near term the excess rain is saturating clay soils, delaying harvests and reducing crop quality.