THE STORMS IN RIO DE JANEIRO CITY IN APRIL 2010

The Rio de Janeiro City suffered great floods due to the storms that took place between April5th and 6th 2010. According to the official information, the total accumulated in 24 hours was 278mm(considered the worst flood in 44 years, since 1966) and the high tide also contributed to the 60 floodingpoints verified in the whole city. The purpose of the present work is to compare the daily maximum rainfall(P1day) available in Agência Nacional de águas (ANA) database with the data from the Funda o deGeotécnica da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro (GEO-RIO) rain gauges network and historical records. Theprecipitation gauges registered in ANA and selected for the study were SABóIA LIMA; IRAJá; PRA AXV and JARDIM BOT NICO and the P1day values found were, respectively, 330.9mm (02/26/1971);339.6mm (02/26/1971); 237.0mm (01/11/1966); and, 242.6mm (01/11/1966). The selected stationsfrom GEO-RIO were TIJUCA; SAúDE and JARDIM BOT NICO and the P1day values found were,respectively, 259.9mm (01/08/1998); 160.8mm (10/24/2007); and 239.0mm (04/06/2010). For the samedays, is also presented an analysis of the recorded tides, observed by Diretoria de Hidrografia e Navega o– DHN, which is a Brazilian navy organization, as a complement to understand the phenomenon. Inconclusion, it was possible to infer that April 2010 event was overcome twice in the last 40 years (February,1971 and January, 1998).