Tornado Devastates Jarinu, Brazil

Storm Report

Violent storms swept through Sao Paulo state, leaving a wake of damage that can only be attributed to a tornado. The Center for Meteorological Research of Campinas reported that an F1 tornado passed through the city of Jarinu, with a speed up to 130 km/h. These dangerous weather conditions occurred due to a moisture channel on the state of Sao Paulo on 6 July 2016.

The above time-lapse, generated by Earth Networks Total Lightning Network™, shows a high frequency of purple lightning icons during the storm. The presence of these purple strikes, which are in-cloud lightning strikes, foreshadows the possibility of more severe weather conditions like the tornado Jaruni experienced.

Besides lightning, the network also tracked the storm cells. The red circles in the image above represent extremely strong storm cells making their way directly over Jaruni. The purple polygons indicate Earth Networks generated two Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts.

Effects

Photo: Carlos Nardi

The storm and its accompanying tornado caused extensive damage to Jarinu. Intense rain during the storm caused several landslides, one of which killed another person after the storm left the area. The damage on the city’s buildings and infrastructure was so great that it’s still not completely fixed. The shopping center streets were hit the worst. The tornado uprooted trees and tossed cards throughout the city center.

Photo: Playback

A woman was killed when a bus she was waiting for toppled over onto her. 20 people were injured when a church located in Spring Garden collapsed.