Climate crisis blamed for rains and floods that have killed 150 in Brazil

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/13/climate-crisis-blamed-for-rains-and-floods-that-have-killed-150-in-brazil

Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Fri 13 Mar 2020 07.37 EDT


About 150 people have been killed or are missing following record-breaking heavy rains, landslides and flooding in three Brazilian states this year.

Scientists say global heating is contributing to more “extreme rainfall” events in the country, and warned that such disasters could become “the new normal”.

Monsoon rains kill Brazilians every summer, with floodwaters filling streets and landslides afflicting poorer communities and favelas built on steep hillsides, often without proper drainage or sanitation.

But global temperatures have climbed steeply since the 1980s, and a warming atmosphere causes more evaporation, making more water available for precipitation.

Official data sent to the Guardian showed “extreme rainfall events” – when more than 80mm or 100mm falls within 24 hours – have soared over the past 30 years in the capitals of the south-eastern states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte, where the deadly rains happened.

Scientists blame a combination of growing cities and climate breakdown.

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In Guarujá, a coastal town 25 miles from São Paulo, 282mm [11 in.] fell in just 12 hours last week – more than the total expected for the entire month of March.

“I never saw a day it rained like that,” said Rafael Soares, 22, a tyre factory worker from the town’s hillside Barreira do João Guarda community, hit by a landslide on 3 March that buried dozens of houses, killing 18 people and leaving dozens still missing.

Soares heard a deafening boom at about 1am and ran up the hill behind his house to find that part of his community had been buried.

“You couldn’t see anything, just earth and mud,” he said, describing “just hearing cries, people crying, not knowing what to do. There was no light, there was nothing.”

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According to data from Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet), one Rio de Janeiro weather station logged 134 extreme rainfalls from 1960 to 1990, and 221 from 1990 to 2020. A São Paulo weather station reported 15 from 1960 to 1990 and 44 since.

“There’s clearly been an increase of extreme events in the south-east of Brazil,” Ambrizzi said.

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Extreme rain events and consecutive droughts are likely to continue, said Carlos Nobre, one of Brazil’s leading climate scientists and a senior researcher at the University of São Paulo’s Institute for Advanced Studies. “This is the new normal,” he said.