Three others were missing in floods that followed 6 inches of rain in the rugged Ouachita Mountains near Y City, 125 miles west of Little Rock.

WSJ: Tornado-Hit Oklahoma Struck Again; Mother and Baby Dead

In Brazil the forested mountains behind Rio de Janeiro received a third more rain in just 24 hours than in the whole of last January.

ECONOMIST: Torrential rain prompts tragedy, and a need for prevention

Las Vegas lies at the edge of the vast Mojave Desert, in a bowl-shaped valley in the parched rain-shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

BBC: Discover life in the Nevada desert

This figure may now be lower: torrential rain in late September drove many refugees down from the mountains, where they were sheltering under plastic sheeting and tarpaulins, into nearby towns.

ECONOMIST: Getting ready for war