The pictures are impressive: This Thursday, the Iguaçu Falls reached 16.5 million cubic meters of water, a volume about eleven times the usual (about 1.5 million).
Although the river’s surge is common at this time of year, it is the secondhighest flow on record, albeit well short of the 2014 record when the river’s flow reached 47 million liters of water per second.
The high flow of the Iguaçu Falls, considered the largest waterfalls in the world, is due to the heavy rains in the region on the border of Brazil and Argentina, which also affected several communities in the state of Paraná ., which according to Folha de São Paulo caused flooding, flash flooding and disruptions to water and electricity supplies.
In Iguazu National Park on the Argentine side, the falls area has been closed to the public since Wednesday for safety reasons, but this Friday the upper and lower circuits opened, so I only kept the “Devil’s Throat” closed. Approaching the most famous waterfall, this walkway is the only one also prohibited on the Brazilian side of the national park.
“Breathtaking views of the flooding of the world’s largest waterfalls can be viewed from the park’s main vantage points,” the company affirms on Instagram. According to the park, forecasts point to a drop in flow in the coming weeks, reaching “an average of two to five million liters per second.”