A violent storm in the state of Rio de Janeiro; Understand what happened

Severe storms hit the cities of Niteroi and São Gonçalo in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday evening. The severe storm brought short-term heavy rain with lots of lightning, but the phenomenon with the greatest impact was strong, violent gust winds with destructive potential.

The storm was fast but intense. High winds left several neighborhoods in Niterói without power and in São Gonçalo a fire broke out at a power substation. Winds that blew in the early evening also caused poles to fall, exacerbating the problem of power outages for residents. Trees also fell and a Guanabara supermarket was damaged in São Gonçalo.

In the most serious episode, but without casualties, the show of singer Marisa Monti, scheduled in Praia de Icarai, was postponed. Part of the theater structure could not withstand the force of the wind, and it collapsed and was destroyed. The show, which was scheduled for Sunday, has also been postponed.

In a note posted on social media, Niteroi City Hall said: “Adverse and atypical weather conditions, including extremely strong winds and a thunderstorm, caused the collapse of the theater structure on Ikarai Beach.” At the first sign of strong winds, the evacuation plan was put into effect and there were no people left on site when the structure collapsed.

What caused the intense storm surge in Niterói and São Gonçalo was a strong area of ​​instability with characteristics of a mesoscale convective system, which formed rapidly in the early evening between the city of Rio de Janeiro and Niterói, at the height of Guanabara Bay. With severe storms in the system’s eastern sector of the Gulf.

Mitsul

The temperature at 8 p.m., just before the storm, was 33.0 degrees Celsius at the meteorological station of the National Institute of Meteorology. With the violent storm, the station stopped publishing data. The temperature just before the storm was very high at the time and unusual for the night.

Rio de Janeiro had a historically hot day. According to National Institute of Meteorology stations, the highest temperature on Saturday was 42.6 degrees Celsius in Seropedika; 42.5°C in Villa Militar; 42.3 °C in Duque de Caxias (Zerem); 42.2 °C in Campuche; 41.9°C in Marambia; 41.7 °C in Niteroi; 41.1 °C in Silva Jardim; and 40.6°C in Mackay.

In the Alerta Rio network, the Meteorological Service of the Rio de Janeiro City Council recorded the highest temperature at a weather station today in Guaratiba at 43.8 degrees Celsius. According to the service, the thermal sensation reached 59.7 degrees Celsius, also in Guaratiba.

Urgent: Part of singer Marisa Monti’s show stage collapses in Niteroi. The event has been cancelled pic.twitter.com/o8z8PGLq8Z

– SBT Rio (@sbtrio) November 19, 2023

More photos from singer Marisa Monti’s performance stage in Niteroi, which collapsed due to the storm. No one is hurt pic.twitter.com/qPaEjOm9PW

– SBT Rio (@sbtrio) November 19, 2023

Extreme heat in particular was responsible for the formation of the storm cloud in the Rio de Janeiro and Niterói region. MetSul had warned of the danger of storms this evening. When the atmosphere overheats and reaches abnormal values, very strong storm clouds often form, releasing intense thermal energy in the form of extreme phenomena.

Therefore, destructive storms are very common in storms that form on days of extreme heat, as was the case today in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Since the station went offline and stopped sending data, there is no information about wind speeds on Niteroi, but videos indicate wind gusts ranging from 100 km/h to 120 km/h with the potential for significant damage.

MetSul Meteorologia is available on WhatsApp channels. subscription here To access the channel in the messaging app and receive forecasts, alerts and information about the most important weather and climate events in Brazil and around the world, with exclusive data and information from our team of meteorologists.