Severe Storms Generate Microburst and Kill Four in Brazil

A group of particularly strong thunderstorms moved through the Santa Catarina region of Brazil on 15 May 2016.

The storms contained a microburst as well as a high frequency of lightning strikes.

The Civil Defense of Santa Catarina confirmed four deaths and dozens of injuries due to the storm’s lightning and high winds. They also reported that strong winds damaged 70 homes and completely destroyed 12. The below image shows the area where the microburst occurred in the city of Ponte Alta do Norte.

The below video generated by Earth Networks Total Lighting Network™ (ENTLN) shows the cloud-to-ground (yellow) and in-cloud (purple) lightning strikes during the storm. You’ll notice from the above video that there are a great deal of purple lightning icons, representing in-cloud lightning strikes. In-cloud lightning accounts for approximately 80% of all lightning strikes and are often a precursor to dangerous weather conditions like high rains and microbursts.

Earth Networks’ ability to monitor this type of lightning generates earlier warning to severe weather called Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts (DTA’s). The video below generated by ENTLN shows approximately 20 DTA’s that were sent out during the time of the storm. The DTA’s in the video are represented by the purple polygons.

For local coverage of the storm in Portuguese, please visit our Brazilian partner, Simtech.