A red weather alert has been lifted following an intense bout of storms that hit Buenos Aires city and province, but the impact of floods and canceled flights remains. The heavy rains and hail have mainly affected the northeastern part of Buenos Aires, in particular the city of La Plata. Rivers and streams are overflowing due to the extreme weather and many streets are flooded with people in need of aid.

The highest electrical intensity of the storm hit during the early hours of Thursday morning, between 2 and 4 a.m., and primarily affected the Jorge Newbery airport (Aeroparque) — airport sources told Télam that although operations are resuming normally as of Thursday afternoon, those initial delays had a knock-on effect throughout the day which are expected to continue on Friday. 

The electric storm affected more than 150 flights between Ezeiza and Aeroparque airports, adding delays and cancellations, mostly in the metropolitan air station. Aerolineas Argentinas alone had 92 flights cancelled with more than 11,000 passengers affected. 

The Buenos Aires Civil Defense has said that the weather “is being treated as a historical weather phenomenon as there has not been rainfall of this intensity recorded in the month of August for 60 years.” The City of Buenos Aires recorded 130 millimeters of rain between the early hours of the morning and 10 a.m.

The municipality of La Plata is helping the families affected by floods and touring the area. They say the situation is getting under control and that families requiring assistance at evacuation centers are being seen to.

“We have already broken the records of rainfall in 24 hours for the city of La Plata, with the aggravating factor that most of this precipitation happened within eight hours,” said Mauricio Saldivar, director of the Hydrometeorology of La Plata. He told Télam that the Civil Defense, municipal police and SAME will continue working in affected neighborhoods-

Fabián García, director of the Civil Defense, has said the northeast of Buenos Aires province area should remain on alert because of the high tide and heavy southeastern winds in the La Plata River, which could lead to clogging issues and potentially serious flooding.

—with information from Télam