Unusually heavy wet season across South America by Alex Deakin
It has been an usually heavy start to the wet season across parts of South America, with heavy downpours lashing Peru and Brazil. Heavy rain hit Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest. Here around 167mm (over 6 inches) of rain fell in just 24 hours; four times the average amount of rain received in London through the whole of December.
In Sao Paulo, weeks of heavy rainfall in Brazil’s south-eastern coffee area has helped farmers increase production. The Brazilian Meteorological Office said that over the next few days between 50-130mm (2- 5 inches) of rain are forecast to fall across south-eastern Minas Gerais and Espirito.
Flooding has already caused widespread damage across Minas, Uruguay, over the weekend, killing three people in the capital of Belo Horizonte. Forecasters at the local met service expect a further 60mm (2.4 inches) to hit the region on Monday. Peru’s wet season runs from November to March, meaning the wet weather is set to continue.
