By AccuWeather meteorologist
Published Dec. 29, 2021 11:27 AM EST | Updated Dec. 30, 2021 7:03 AM EST
Unrelenting rounds of heavy rain have turned deadly in northeastern Brazil, killing 21 people and leaving hundreds more injured. The devastating floods have left entire cities and towns completely underwater, affecting nearly half a million people in the state of Bahia since the end of November.
According to The Associated Press, over 350 people have been injured from the flooding, and thousands more have been forced to flee their homes amid what has been the heaviest period of rainfall in over three decades.
Rounds of heavy rainfall have affected portions of Brazil since late November which coincided with the beginning of the area's wettest months. Typically, the wettest months of the year for Brazil fall from December through March, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist and Lead International Forecaster Jason Nicholls.
A girl carries a chair in flood waters in Itapetinga, Bahia state, Brazil, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021. Two dams broke Sunday in northeastern Brazil, threatening worse flooding in a rain-drenched region that has already seen thousands of forced to flee their homes. (AP Photo/Raphael Muller)
Since late November, the state of Bahia has recorded its heaviest period of rainfall in the last 32 years, according to the National Center for Monitoring and Alerts of Natural Disasters, a government agency.
In recent weeks, the flooding situation has only gotten worse, as the region's protective dams filled to the point of failure, giving way on Dec. 24. According to Al Jazeera, the Christmas Eve dam bursts left many homes and businesses inundated in areas downstream.
Travel routes between some cities and towns have also been completely washed away, leaving some locations completely isolated. For others, bridges, state roads and federal roads that were destroyed in the floods have been provisionally rebuilt to allow crucial supplies to be transported to people in need.
At least five other dams across the state are at risk of bursting, the AP reported.
Bahia Governor Rui Costa compared the situation in the state to a "bombardment" on Tuesday. He added that some coronavirus vaccines were lost in the flooding as some municipal health offices and medicine depots were flooded.
“We still don’t have a complete list of all the damage caused, the amount of structures that will need to be replaced,” Costa said. “It isn’t possible to stipulate a timeframe for recovery, because we don’t have that dimension."
Families place furniture on the roof of their houses due to floods caused by heavy rains in the city of Itapetinga, southern region of Bahia state, Brazil, Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021. The Bahia state government's press office said heavy rains have caused floods that have killed 18 people and affected more than 30 cities since early November, forcing more than 4,000 from their homes and complicating access to some communities. (AP Photo/Manuella Luana)
AccuWeather forecasters say the recent resurgence in rounds of rainfall is due to a phenomenon that is all-too-common for the region.
"A stalling front in the area triggered rain and drenching thunderstorms across southern and western Bahia into portions of Minas Gerais and Tocantins," Nicholls explained.
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When a front "stalls" or remains stationary over an area, multiple rounds of rainfall are able to develop over the same locations over and over again. Persistent heavy rainfall can quickly saturate and overwhelm the soil, leaving the water no place to go but to quickly run over the land. This phenomenon is known as flash flooding.
Flooding has not been limited to just the state of Bahia, as neighboring states have also received blows from Mother Nature.
In the state of Tocantins, at least 22 municipalities were affected by the rain and subsequent flooding as of Tuesday. The executive director of the state’s civil defense authority, Major Alex Matos, told the AP that the number of affected areas is expected to grow.
Forecasters say the outlook for an extended period of dry weather is grim, but there is at least some hope in the short term.
"The front will weaken and retreat southward over the next couple of days, so it should be less active Thursday and Friday," Nicholls said.
However, heavier rain can return to western Bahia and Tocantins by the weekend, worsening ongoing flooding problems once more, he added.
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