Surprised Cariocas Freeze
RIO DE JANEIRO – A cold front slammed Rio de Janeiro early Saturday morning hitting the city with cold temperatures and heavy rain. Due to the inclement weather, landings and takeoffs at both the Santos Dumont and Antonio Carlos Jobim International airports were operating on instruments.
By 10:00 am Saturday 27 domestic flights scheduled for Santos Dumont were delayed and three canceled. Among the 24 international flights scheduled, three were canceled.
As cold rain and frigid wind swept the city, thermometers registered as low as 59 degrees Fahrenheit. Those preparing to run in the Rio Half Marathon had to pull raincoats and jackets from the closet. Wind gusts on Sunday reached 34 mph—unusual for Rio de Janeiro.
According to the Navy, waves of up to 10 feet were coming ashore on southwest facing beaches. The climatological institute said that the unusually harsh weather would last into midweek.
Over the weekend, the unusually cold and blustery weather as well as the high seas were frightening passersby in Copacabana beach. Tourists holed up in there hotels and the streets were quiet. Locals and tourists alike were caught off guard by the strange weather. “I've never seen anything like it”, said life-long Copacabana resident Sheila Santana. “And I have lived my entire life here”.
Read also: More Articles from Brazil Dispatch
Source(s) for this article: O Globo
Do you like this post? Please link back to this article by copying one of the codes below.
HTML link code:
0 comments:
Post a Comment