A spiralling storm lashed the coast of southern Brazil on Sunday, killing two people, injuring at least 39 others and damaging thousands of homes.

The storm, dubbed 'Catarina' by some meteorologists, hit the coasts of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul states late on Sunday with heavy rain and strong winds.

Authorities were searching for 11 fishermen after two boats sank 15 kilometres (9 miles) from the shore off Santa Catarina state in 4 metre (13') high waves early Sunday.

Throughout the day reports of injuries and damage continued to trickle in, but communications were hampered by power outages in dozens of towns.

Near the city of Criciuma in Santa Catarina, strong winds and falling trees destroyed some 200 homes and damaged a further 3,000 in Criciuma alone.

In Torres in Rio Grande do Sul, the storm swept the roofs off 400 properties and 35,000 people were left without power.

The mayor of Torres has declared a state of emergency. Both he and the Santa Catarina state assembly are appealing for aid.

Meanwhile, as the clean up begins, the debate continues over the nature of the storm itself.

The US National Hurricane Centre in Florida estimated the storm was a fully fledged, Category 1 hurricane with central winds of between 75-80 mph (121-129 km/h). This would make it the first ever hurricane recorded in the South Atlantic.

Brazil's official weather service however, continued to deny the phenomenon. They acknowledged that the wind speeds were likely to have reached those to make hurricane classification but stated their data indicated it was an extratropical cyclone.

Brazil has no wind-measuring devices in the affected area, so both the Brazilian scientists and those in the US were using satellite imagery as their data source.

For a storm to be a hurricane its core must be warmer than its edges. The Brazilians still state this was not the case. However, Met Office tropical storm expert Julian Heming has been assimilating information from sources around the globe and is in full agreement with the overall consensus -

'Catarina' was the South Atlantic's first hurricane.

Weather News from the last five days:
28/03/2004
27/03/2004
26/03/2004
25/03/2004
24/03/2004

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