Wunderground.com- 4/3/13, Christopher Burt
Torrential rainfall associated with heavy thunderstorms resulted in flash floods that have killed at least 54 in the Buenos Aires Province of Argentina. Press reports claim that up to 400 mm (16”) of rain deluged the town of La Plata in the space of just two to three hours early on Wednesday morning (April 3rd).
Heavy rain began falling on Tuesday in Buenos Aires and then sagged southeast to La Plata, a city located 63 km (40 miles) outside of Buenos Aires, where the rainfall rate peaked between 3:00-5:30 a.m. on Wednesday April 3rd. The Buenos Aires Observatorio, the city’s official weather site, measured 188.1 mm (7.41”) of precipitation for the 24-hour period ending at 3 p.m. local time (18:00 UTC) on April 2nd with an additional 7.5 mm (0.30”) falling over the next 24-hours for a storm total of 195.6 mm (7.71”). La Plata measured 15.0 mm (0.59”) on April 2nd and 181.0 mm (7.13”) on April 3rd for a total of 196 mm (7.72”). In both cases, however, the majority of the rainfall occurred in just 2 or 3 hours. According to the mayor of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri, this was the 2nd heaviest rainfall in the city since records for such began in 1906. The 196 mm is the equivalent of double what the total April monthly precipitation normally would be.
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