Argentina closes Iguazú Falls to visitors as El Niño raises river flow sixfold

Access restricted as river flow surges

On Monday, 12 October 2026, the Iguazú National Park administration and the company that runs the site restricted access to the falls' tourist areas after the river's flow exceeded 12,000 cubic metres per second, more than six times its usual average. The park said the measure was preventive because of heavy rain linked to El Niño. The initial announcement gave no reopening date.

A temporary restriction on the movement of people and access to the areas open to the public has been implemented.

Later that day the park reported a "gradual decline" in the river's flow, which allowed it to lift the preventive restriction and resume normal activities from Tuesday, 13 October. Park director José María Hervás said the closure was taken because "it just keeps raining" and the volume of water released from dams upstream on the Iguazú River was not falling. The Iguazú Falls, recognised by UNESCO and spanning about 2,700 metres on the Argentina-Brazil border, are among the largest waterfalls in the world.

Flood alerts across the Paraná and Uruguay

Authorities also issued alerts over rising flows on the Paraná and Uruguay rivers, which were driven by El Niño rains. The binational body that operates the Yacyretá hydroelectric plant, on the Argentina-Paraguay border, said on Monday that the Paraná's flow was 37% above its historical averages in September and 40% above since early October. According to local media, flooding on the Uruguay River forced dozens of people to evacuate riverside areas around Concordia and Paso de los Libres.

A pattern of closures

The park also closed the falls for flooding in 2023 and 2024, during an earlier El Niño episode that destroyed walkways in the tourist area known as the Devil's Throat. In August 2026 the park closed that section of the trail and dismantled its walkways as a precaution, anticipating a similar or stronger weather event. The sequence of closures and precautionary measures is shown below.

El Niño outlook

Meteorologists worldwide have warned that the current El Niño could become the strongest ever recorded. The phenomenon begins in the equatorial Pacific, where shifting winds release heat from the ocean into the atmosphere, and it peaks in December while affecting weather well into the following year. El Niño raises temperatures in the tropical Pacific, which can increase the risk of both drought and flooding, and scientists now consider human-caused global warming to be intensifying such events. In Argentina, the national meteorological service (SMN) said rainfall on the coast had been excessive through September, comparable to the average of strong El Niño events.

The excesses are relatively small at the beginning, but increase as the year progresses, particularly during the austral summer and autumn of 2027.

The SMN's warning points to rising excesses over the austral summer and autumn of 2027.