Hundreds of people in central Peru were recently flooded out of their homes. Rivers left their banks washing away buildings and highways while areas of Peru along the coast of the Pacific Ocean were relatively dry. Flooding from heavy rainfall in some areas of Peru was occurring at the end of the normal rainy season.

 

Data from the TRMM satellite are used to calibrate rainfall data merged from various satellite sources. TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analyses (TMPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center are used to monitor rainfall over the global Tropics. TMPA rainfall estimates are shown above for the week from March 15-22, 2013. The perspective 3-D image above shows a rainfall analysis draped over Peru's topography. It shows that extreme rainfall (shown in dark red) totaling more than 300 mm (~11.8 inches) fell in the tropical rain forests of Peru and western Bolivia east of the towering Andes mountains. During the same period the coastal desert and scrub areas of Peru along the Pacific coast are shown by TMPA to have received very little precipitation.