Flooding in Colombia continues after weeks of excessive rainfall has fallenthroughout the nation. The death toll stands at 136 lives, while many morepeople remain missing.Government officials this past Thursday declared a state of calamity in 28 ofthe nation's 32 states. More than 1.2 million people have been affected by theflooding across the nation.
More rain is likely over the next few days, which will aggravate the floodingcurrently ongoing across the nation.
View Larger MapLivestock and crops have been severely impacted by the ongoing flooding. Muchof Colombia's economy is supported by agriculture, which is only causing moreproblems for the nation and its people.
Two tropical air masses, one originating from the Atlantic Ocean and one fromthe Pacific Ocean, met over Colombia.
While this is the rain season for Colombia, this rain season has been enhancedby the onset of La Nina, which typically produces more rain than normal acrossnorthern South America.
Rain over the next couple of days will be heaviest over the Andes Mountains,which span much of western Colombia from Ecuador to northwestern Venezuela,where the two tropical air masses collide.
Numerous showers and thunderstorms will develop, any of which will producedaily rainfall totals in excess of 2-4 inches. However, the precipitation islikely to be of the hit-or-miss variety, so some areas will get rain, possiblyheavy, while other areas dry out.
By Rob Miller, Senior Meteorologist and updated by Eric Leister and MarkPaquette
