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Weekly Updates: Africa | Asia | Latin America

07 December 2010

Latin America #6

We were locked into a pattern in South America. Currently, things are too wet in the north, and we were too dry in the south, but is beginning to change. Flooding and landslides continue to be a problem in Colombia and Venezuela with the potential for the torrential downpours to spread into Panama and Ecuador. Meanwhile, near where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay come together, we have had three days of very heavy rainfall.

Very little has changed since I posted earlier about the flooding across Colombia and Venezuela. But here is an image that puts things down graphically.


Further south there has been a sudden change in the dry pattern. Three days of heavy rainfall has slashed deficits in half near where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay come together. Uruguay, unfortunately, has received no benefit from this event, nor has the greater Buenos Aries area. The heavy rainfall likely caused localized flooding, but it is nothing compared to the on going disaster in the northern part of the continent. None-the-less, some crop damage and minor damage to buildings may have occurred.  The good news is the wet weather has greatly improved moisture available for crops, and  much of Paraguay now has season long positive anomalies. The rains will likely moderate over the next week, but they will stick around, and may push southward into Uruguay and deeper into Argentina. There is one bit of bad news associated with this change. As moisture has moved into areas that desperately needed it, much of the rest of Brazil has begun to dry out, including just about all of the Amazon basin.

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