Storms Flood São Paulo as National Alerts Warn of More Severe Weather

Overview

• All districts of São Paulo entered a state of attention for flooding, with Aricanduva and Itaquera escalated to state of alert after the Rio Aricanduva overflowed.
• Firefighters conducted rescues in flooded streets in the North and Central zones, buses took on water on Avenida Aricanduva, and Santo André reported multiple inundated avenues.
• Power utility Enel reported about 43,000 customers without electricity at the peak, as wind gusts reached around 80 km/h at Campo de Marte and roughly 5,400 lightning strikes hit the metro area.
• INMET issued storm alerts from 12:00 to 23:59 for parts of the Center-West, Southeast and South, warning of up to 50 mm of rain in 24 hours, 40–60 km/h gusts and possible hail.
• Campo Grande recorded damaging downpours with flooding and fallen trees, while forecasts call for hotter days with São Paulo near 35–36°C by the weekend and Simepar tracking a system likely to become an extratropical cyclone around January 10–11.