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English: A winter storm brought torrential rain to southern Brazil, triggering deadly flooding in June 2023. The flooding reportedly killed more than a dozen people and left thousands without power in the country’s southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.

The storm slammed several communities near Porto Alegre, the state’s capital, with heavy rain and wind on June 16. In Maquiné, a municipality near the coast and one of the hardest hit areas, about 12 inches (300 millimeters) of rain accumulated in 24 hours, according to the state government. In São Leopoldo, just to the north of Porto Alegre, about 10 inches (250 mm) fell.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired these natural-color images before and after the storm (left and right, respectively). The right image shows the affected area on June 19, 2023, three days after the storm. Sediment-rich water overtopped the banks of the Rio dos Sinos, inundating large stretches of farmland. Mud-stained runoff can be seen flowing into the Patos Lagoon, south of Porto Alegre.