Severe Storms & Tornado Leave Thousands Homeless in Brazil

Several strong storms drove through the western Santa Catarina, Brazil region on Monday, April 20, 2015. There were countless reports of damaged property, downed power lines and trees. The National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) confirmed that the storms produced at least one tornado in Xanxere that killed two people. Several Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts (DTA) were issued. An initial DTA issued approximately 50 kilometers west of Xanxere city would have provided a 47 minute early warning of the extreme weather. Two people in Xanxere were killed because of the violent weather conditions and many were hospitalized.

There were substantial amounts of in-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning associated with each of the tracked storm cells. The lightning detected by Earth Networks helps provide important storm parameters, critical data, visualization and advanced alerting.