Inmet Expands Yellow Alerts as ZCIT Brings Heavy Rains to North and Northeast Over Holiday

Overview

• Inmet, which broadened its notices Sunday, added João Pessoa and 221 other Paraíba municipalities to a yellow alert and kept warnings in place for all of Ceará and for Natal plus 123 other cities in Rio Grande do Norte.
• The yellow classification signals rain of 20 to 30 mm per hour or up to 50 mm in a day and gusts of 40 to 60 km/h, with localized risks such as street flooding, fallen branches and spot power cuts.
• Meteorologists attribute the pattern to the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a belt of moisture near the Equator that boosts thunderstorm formation across the northern Amazon and the northern Northeast from February to May.
• While the North and northern Northeast face frequent downpours, the Center‑West and Southeast stay hot and mostly dry with many areas topping 30°C, and a frontal system brings cooling to the South with isolated storms and early‑week frost risk in higher terrain.
• Authorities advise avoiding shelter under trees, not parking near transmission towers or billboards, unplugging electronics during storms and calling Civil Defense at 199 or the Fire Department at 193 in emergencies.