Images and videos of a rare snow event in Brazil, with temperatures falling to almost -8C, have been flooding social media. Authorities earlier warned of an approaching severe cold snap.
At least 13 cities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul saw snow on Wednesday night, coating the region in a fine white powder, local media report.
While the weather provided the perfect backdrop for photos and videos, some of the footage showed particularly ominous, blizzard-like conditions.
Winds in San Francisco de Paula, a city in Rio Grande do Sul, reached up to 80 kph (50 mph), driving the snow horizontally and greatly reducing visibility, according MetSul meteorologists.
Snow was also seen in the neighboring state of Santa Catarina, which sits just south of the Tropic of Capricorn, where temperatures reportedly got as low as -7.8C.
MetSul Meteorologia, a weather and climate forecast for all of Brazil and South America, described the events as “very rare,” noting that some areas had experienced record levels of winter precipitation.
The cold snap had been forecast, as the weather front had already brought snow and freezing rain to neighboring Uruguay, with Climatempo suggesting temperatures could get as low as -10C in the Santa Catarina Mountains and Rio Grande do Sul.
In a tweet, MetSul stated that in more than 30 years of weather forecasting in Rio Grande do Sul, they had never seen such snow and strong winds.
The freezing temperatures and snow reported in Brazil come in a month where there have been seemingly endless reports of unseasonal and extreme weather in other states.
India has been hit by the strongest monsoon rains in four decades, while central China has seen deadly flooding. Central Europe also saw intense flooding, while a Canadian heat wave left dozens of people dead.
Meanwhile, in Turkey, the raging fires have triggered evacuations, as emergency services struggle to contain the blazes.
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