Iguazu Falls, the thundering giant on the Argentina-Brazil border, is turning into an absolute monster this week. Heavy rain linked to El Niño has sent the river roaring to around 12,000 cubic meters per second, roughly eight times its historical average of about 1,500, according to Al Jazeera's reporting. The surge got so intense that Brazilian authorities closed the Devil's Throat walkway on Sunday, and crews then dismantled parts of it so the rising water could not sweep the structure away. Argentina's side felt it too, with park officials shutting access on Monday before reopening the main circuits on Tuesday, while the Devil's Throat walkway stayed closed.

The drama is not coming out of nowhere. Argentine park authorities had already pulled up the Devil's Throat walkways back in August, betting that El Niño rains would bring flooding as bad as or worse than the last round, which wrecked sections of the same walkway in 2023. Reports on just how extreme this surge is vary, with some outlets citing six times normal flow, others eight, and some close to ten, depending on the baseline used. For perspective, the 12,000 cubic meters per second is the biggest flow of 2026 so far but still far below the record-shattering 2014 flood, which topped 46,000 and tore apart walkways on both sides of the falls. With more rain in the forecast, the big question hanging over one of the planet's most spectacular sights is how much higher the water can climb.