More than 30 cities in Bahia have already been completely flooded amidst the strong rains in the state, and the expectation is that the region will still suffer from intense rainfall in the coming days, according to Francisco de Assis Diniz, head of the weather forecast at the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet).
In an interview with CNN, he stated that the rains in the region should alleviate between this Sunday (26) and Monday (27), but they resume as of tomorrow, with strong intensity until Wednesday (29).
“What has already rained in the last four days in the south region, southwest of Bahia, is already equivalent to practically double the climatology in the month”, says Diniz.
According to him, the forecast “is not good ahead”. “The rain continues from today to tomorrow, even weaker, but from tomorrow to Wednesday the rain is again more intense in the south and southwest of Bahia and east too, almost up to the height of Salvador”.
The forecast is that the rains will only give a break from Wednesday, with the region having no expectation of precipitation for the rest of the week of the Christmas Eve, at most with light and isolated rain.
“The convergence of humidity that causes a lot of rain in the summer period in the central-southeast part of Brazil is very concentrated between the north of Minas Gerais and Bahia, this has been happening for several days, and then there is less rain, even drought in the southern region, and the rain is concentrated in the north of the country”, he says.
He emphasizes, however, that the rain should head to other areas of the country. “The situation is an effect of La Niña. The rain will start to fall again to the South, and will cause more rain in the region where there is already flooding, then it goes down to Minas Gerais and is concentrated between Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, where it will catch exactly the end New Year’s Eve weekend, with a lot of rain in the region”.
Diniz says the forecast is that the north of São Paulo, the metropolitan region, the border with the southeast of Minas Gerais, the mining triangle and the entire Rio de Janeiro begin to concentrate the most intense rains.
“When a cold front passes in the southern region of Brazil, it comes in a rather weak way and parks between the center and southeast of Brazil. It is fed back by this convergence of moisture by the winds, which carry a lot of moisture from the Amazon and the Pacific, and takes this region in the southeast and, depending on the time of year, a little further north, due to the effect of La Nina”, he explains. the boss of Inmet.
According to Diniz, the current situation in Bahia was already foreseen. “Alerts are being issued every day about heavy rains, it was warned well before Christmas that the region would suffer from heavy rains during the exact period of Christmas, it was warned well in advance,” he says.
According to him, the climate phenomenon La Niña should continue “very active” in January, which will result in few rains in the south of the country and a repetition of the situation currently observed in Bahia and Minas Gerais, with new intense rains.
“We are still going to have significant amounts of rain in this region in January”, he says.
Reference: CNN Brasil
