Disturbance in south-west Gulf of Mexico has 60% chance of developing into a hurricane over next seven days

A weather system is set to move over southern Texas and Mexico through this week, bringing vast quantities of rain. The National Hurricane Center noted a tropical disturbance in the south-west Gulf of Mexico that has a 60% chance of developing into a tropical depression during the next seven days. This potential tropical depression, essentially an area of low pressure, may be in a spot where the environmental conditions are good for its gradual development, and could end up moving towards hurricane status.

But even if it does not turn into a hurricane, heavy rain is expected to affect southern Texas and Mexico. Southern Texas may experience up to 100mm (3.9in) of rainfall on Wednesday through to Friday, and some Mexican states bordering the gulf may have up to 150mm. Rainfall totals of this magnitude, especially within such a small time frame, can cause catastrophic, life-threatening flooding.

Porto Alegre’s poorest neighborhoods, often closest to rivers and with the worst infrastructure, bore brunt of crisis

It had been raining for nearly a week when the floodwaters first reached Marcelo Moreira Ferreira’s home in Porto Alegre, the capital of Brazil’s southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul.

His wife and their four children left to seek shelter with relatives, but Ferreira, 51, wanted to stay: his father had built the modest one-storey structure and he had lived there his entire life.