Mesoscale Convective Complexes (CCM) are organized clusters of convective clouds, which often arrive at Southern Region of Brazil and produce a variety of hazards. This study evaluated hazards associated with CCM events in the Rio Grande do Sul (RS) State, the southernmost of Brazil, between October and December of 2003. The detection of CCM was done using ForTraCC application - DSA/INPE. Data coming from Defesa Civil do RS (DCRS), the RS civil defense organization, and from the archives of Jornal Correio do Povo, a local newspaper, served as source material to evaluate the hazards on the CCM event occurring days. During the period, 22 CCM events were identified over the RS. Based on DCRS reports, 90 incidents were associated with CCM events: strong gales and storms (42), flash floods (21), stream overflows (14), hail and strong gales (5), hail storms (3), swamping (2), floods (2) and earth flows (1). These CCM events caused the death of eleven people, of which six were in RS and the five in San Tomé, on the Argentinean side of the boarder. More than 16,500 people were affected by hazards caused by CCM in the RS. Approximately 60% of the municipal districts affected requested emergency situation. On average, three to four events produce some type of hazard.
Mesoscale Convective Complexes; Rio Grande do Sul; Natural hazards
