Latin America Update #10

Colombia got a much needed break during the past week as the dipole I spoke about in the last Latin America Update has repositioned itself, dumping heavy rains into eastern and central Brazil. Some relief from the dryness has arrive in parts of Paraguay.  The drought relief is not widespread, as only some areas of Bolivia, and Argentina received sufficient rainfall.

Right now we have some fantastic news in Colombia. The last seven days have be abnormally dry in the area that has experienced the worst flooding. Panama and much of the rest of Colombia had near normal precipitation. This will hopefully let rivers, streams and lakes drain down, allow flooded areas to dry out and the beginning of the clean up efforts to take place.

What happened to the dipole? Well the sinking air didn't go anywhere, it is still centered over Amazonas state, it has weakened somewhat, but the rising air, the spot where rainfall should be heavy, has turned around and is now over another part of Brazil. An area streaching from eastern Moto Grosso state to Espirito Santo has been soaked for the last seven days. It appears that Brasilia did manage to escape the worst of the down pours, but it wouldn't suprisie me at all if there were some isolated areas that experianced minor flooding. It is possible that this new arrangement will last at least another week. If that happens the minor and isolated flooding that likely happened only in low lying areas this past week, could spread. Note that the heavy rains did not make it as far south as Rio De Janeiro.

Elsewhere Paraguay picked up some moderate rains during the last week, but the main growing areas in Argentina continue to show growing deficits. Bolivia also generally showed growing deficits during the last week, although this was not uniform across either country.