Strong Winds in Brazil Leave at Least Five Dead
Was this windstorm fueled by El Niño or just an unusually intense cold front?
Above: Workers cut and remove a fallen tree after strong wind gusts in Rio de Janeiro on July 29. Image credit: Pablo Porciuncula/AFP/Getty Images
The Spin
Narrative A
El Niño's fingerprints are all over the deadly windstorm that tore through São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The gust front that hit hurricane-force speeds broke off from a storm system fueled by El Niño in southern Brazil. Winter gust fronts are rare precisely because they need unusual moisture to form, and El Niño is delivering exactly that.
Narrative B
Pinning this windstorm on El Niño overstates the science and distracts from straightforward meteorological explanations. The gust front was driven by cold-front activity and meteorological troughs, a relatively common phenomenon that was more intense than usual.