A fan’s yellow sign with green letters — Brazil’s colors — aptly summed up that country’s trifecta at the Billabong Pipe Masters on Thursday.

It read like a warning to the surfing world: “The Brazilian storm has arrived to stay!”

For the second year in a row, a Brazilian hoisted the world championship trophy that looked destined to fall into the lap of Australia’s Mick Fanning. Instead, Brazil’s Adriano de Souza seized the moment and rose up to clutch the sport’s top prize.

De Souza, who entered the World Surf League’s season finale at the Banzai Pipeline as the world’s third-ranked surfer behind Fanning and countryman Filipe Toledo, needed help from another Brazilian, Gabriel Medina, to nail it down. Medina, the defending world champ, knocked off the front-running Fanning in the first semifinal before de Souza clinched it in the second semifinal with a victory over Hawaii’s Mason Ho.

Two other major titles went Brazil’s way. De Souza, 28, dropped Medina, 21, in the event final to become Brazil’s first Pipe Masters champion, and Medina corralled the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing series crown.

De Souza dedicated his bountiful day, in part, to his late friend Ricardo Dos Santos, another surf star from Brazil who was shot dead by an off-duty police officer in January.

“I have this tattoo in memory of his life,” de Souza said. “He had the same tattoo in the same spot. And they say ‘strength, balance and love.’ That’s all I needed this year to win the world title.”

De Souza also credited his deceased brother, who introduced him to surfing.

“He bought me my first surfboard for seven dollars,” said de Souza, trying to hold back tears. “And I’m on the top of the world with seven dollars. I believe at that time for him, seven dollars was too much money.”

Speaking in Portuguese, de Souza thanked the large throng of fans from Brazil who made it over to Hawaii to see him conquer the surfing universe.

Medina started the day with a shot at the world title, but was mathematically eliminated when Fanning advanced to the semifinals by defeating 11-time world champion Kelly Slater in the 4- to 8-foot waves.

With time running out in the Pipe Masters final, Medina tried a radical back flip but he didn’t land it.

“I’m happy for Adriano,” said Medina, whose semifinal win over Fanning — which opened the door for de Souza’s assault on the world title — was the result of a late 6.50 score for a full rotation air that did not include the requisite tube.

“I was going to be surfing my best, no matter who I was up against. It could have been anyone,” Medina added, hinting that helping de Souza was incidental and not based on the extra incentive of pulling through for a fellow Brazilian.

Medina reeled in the Triple Crown of Surfing title by reaching the semifinals of the Hawaiian Pro at Alii Beach Park and the Vans World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach along with his Pipe Masters runner-up finish.

Before the season finale, the odds were with Fanning to win it all. His up-and-down week was a microcosm of his roller-coaster season. He learned of his brother Peter Fanning’s death at age 43 on Wednesday morning and he defeated a lineup of Pipeline superstars — Slater (twice), Hawaii’s Bruce Irons, John John Florence and Jamie O’Brien — before losing to Medina. In the summer, he was unscathed after a Great White shark attack during the final of the WSL’s contest at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa.

De Souza who pocketed the $100,000 first-place Pipe Masters check, barely avoided elimination when he caught a last-minute wave for a quarterfinal win over Australia’s Josh Kerr. Had he lost that heat, Fanning would have wrapped up the world championship.