Earth Changes
Santa Catarina
A storm brought strong winds and heavy rain to parts of Santa Catarina state in southern Brazil on 23 March 2021. The worst of the damage was reported in the city of Blumenau. Civil Defence attended at least 20 incidents, including flash flooding and wind damage.
Flooding in the Itoupava Norte neighbourhood caused a wall to collapse, killing one person and injuring 2 others who were in a vehicle at the time. Another person was seriously injured after a wall collapsed in the Fortaleza neighbourhood.
More than 20 people died or went missing after severe flooding in the Vale do Itajai region of Santa Catarina in December last year.
Further flooding struck in the state in January 2021, including in the state capital Florianópolis where 40mm of rain fell in a 1 hour period.

The New Windsor Bridge submerged by flood waters from the Nepean River at Windsor in the north west of Sydney. The state of New South Wales has been hit by its worst flooding in a century
Thousands of people have been forced from their homes and hundreds more had to be rescued from the rising floodwaters that have isolated dozens of towns in Australia's most populous state.
Around 18,000 people had been evacuated from flooding in New South Wales (NSW) by Monday and emergency services feared up to 54,000 people could be displaced with heavy rain forecast to continue until Wednesday.
"This is nothing like we've seen since the 1960s," said state Premier Gladys Berejiklian at a news conference, CNN reported. In parts of the state that have been hit harder, this is a once-a-century event; in other regions such as the Hawkesbury area, it's a "one-in-50-years" event, she said.
Comment: Here's an earlier report we carried on this, from Australia's 9 News:
Flash floods, towns evacuated and dams on the brink of spilling over as wild weather slams New South Wales, Australia
Snowfall and blizzards blocked many roads in Lahaul and upper Manali on Monday morning. The Manali-Atal tunnel road has been closed to tourists as it has become slippery. Tourist movement has been restricted to Solang valley. Only four-wheel-drive vehicles are being allowed to enter Lahaul valley, where traffic on most roads has crippled partially. Border Roads Organisation (BRO) had started clearing snow since early morning.
Both portals of Atal tunnel have received 25 to 30cm of fresh snow. Solang valley near Manali received 5cm snow. Udaipur received 26cm and Keylong received 9cm snow. Sissu and Gondhla received 15-20cm of fresh snow. Gulaba, Marhi, Rohtang Pass, Hamta and all upper regions of Manali donned a white mantle. Some parts of Spiti valley also received light snow. Hansa village of Spiti recorded 5cm of fresh snow.
As a cold air mass continues to impact Taiwan, the CWB reported that at 7:10 a.m., snow began falling on the north face of Yushan. At 8:05 a.m., snow was falling intermittently, with the temperature fluctuating between 0 and 1 degrees Celsius.
By 8:40 am, the snow had stopped falling, with 1 cm having accumulated at the CWB weather station on Yushan that morning. According to the bureau, precipitation is continuing to fall, but it is a mixture of sleet and ice pellets.
Following a brief summer spell with temperatures rising to 26 degrees Celsius in previous days, Cypriots woke up to chilling weather on Wednesday as temperatures are expected to reach 17 ֯C inland, three degrees below the average for late March.
A webcam operated by Kitas Weather near the landmark Jubilee Hotel showed steady snowfall.
Speaking to the Financial Mirror, a Met Office official said Cyprus will be leaving the hot weather behind as temperatures on Wednesday are not expected to rise above 17C inland, and 18֯ C on the coast. The Troodos mountains will see temperatures of 8C.
Of course, this very severe drop accords with our mid-1990s 140-year post-Little Ice Age "amplitude compression" thesis, positing serial 50-40-30-20 year warm-cold spells from AD 1890 to 2029. At that point, intra-decadal oscillations, whipsaw global temperatures, will confirm the onset of a cyclical 102-kiloyear Pleistocene Ice Age dating from AD 1350, ending the 12,550-year Holocene Interglacial Epoch.
Turkey is once more facing a cold front as snow blanketed the city of Istanbul on Wednesday, with the unseasonable spell of weather drawing the city's traffic to a halt, while other cities are affected by heavy snowfall as well
Istanbul was battered by snowfall in the early hours Wednesday, an unusual occurrence for this time of year in the country's most populated metropolis which has experienced two brief but heavy snow spells over the last two months.
The precipitation first gripped the Asian side of the city before making its way to the European side, bringing the already congested morning traffic to a halt in some places. Although the meteorology forecast had warned about snowfall, most people were expecting it to be a temporary spell, in a month which is usually associated with warm, if not outright hot, weather.
For locals, it was an opportunity to take photos in popular locations blanketed with snow but also an ordeal for motorists. Frustrated drivers had to wait for hours, especially on sections of the D-100 highway on the Asian side. A road connecting Arnavutköy and Hadımköy districts on the European side was closed to traffic when a truck drifting on the icy road overturned. Motorists were stranded for a while as snowplows sent to the area were unable to reach it.

Smoke billowing from a crater, as seen from the southern side of the Mt Etna volcano, tower over the city of Pedara, Sicily
Comment: Ash from volcanic eruptions, together with particulates from meteor 'smoke' and wildfire smoke, all jointly contribute to the increased dust-load in the atmosphere. This changes its electric charge rebalancing mechanisms, producing more intense storms and precipitation in the form of record rainfall, hail, lightning strikes, planetary cooling, atmospheric 'anomalies' etc.
See also:
- Ice Age Farmer Report: Texas Goes Dark - 45% US Wheat Damaged - Grand Solar Minimum
- Cars swept away, 9 dead as heavy rain hits Hyderabad, India - 7.5 inches in 24 hours, highest in Oct since 1903
- World's largest hail record may be challenged by exceptionally large 8+ inches hailstones that hit Tripoli, Libya on Oct 27
- 2.24 million lightning strikes in just 48 hours hit the eastern states of Australia
- Volcanic ash may have a bigger impact on the climate than we thought
- Spectacular 'Sun Dog' observed in Jilin, northeastern China
Comment: Additionally there has also been severe flooding in the city of São Luís in the state of Maranhão: