RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The city will now have five stages in the scale of rainfall monitoring, instead of only three.
The change, which is part of a package of measures focusing on the hottest season of the year, was announced on Monday morning, November 18th, by Mayor Marcelo Crivella and his secretariat.
The scale is used by the Rio Operations Center (COR) to respond to weather and mobility conditions during storms and extraordinary events that may occur. Previously, the COR operated only in the “Normal”, “Attention” and “Crisis” stages.
The five stages of the new scale, from the lowest to the highest, are described below:
1 – Normal: no rain nor wind above 20 km/h;
2 – Mobilization: no rains, but with radar images pointing to the chance of rainfall in up to 3 hours, in addition to winds between 40 km/h and 49.9 km/h in two Alerta Rio (“Rio Alert”) weather stations or in consecutive readings at the same point;
3 – Attention: rainfall records between 10.1 mm and 24.9 mm in 15 minutes, in addition to winds between 60 km/h and 89.9 km/h in two stations or consecutive readings;
4 – Alert: accumulated rainfall above 25 mm in 15 minutes and 60 mm in one hour. Also for winds above 90 km/h in two stations or in consecutive readings;
5 – Crisis: worsening or extension of the alert stage; the Mayor’s involvement is required.