A red alert for extreme heat is in effect for almost all of Brazil. Unusually high temperatures affect more than 100 million people. The warning applies to almost 3,000 cities and towns across the country, the BBC News server writes.
In Rio de Janeiro, a temperature record for the month of November fell on Sunday, meteorologists measured a temperature of 42.5 degrees Celsius. According to them, on Tuesday, the feeling temperature in the city reached up to 58.5 degrees Celsius due to the high air humidity.
In Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo, average temperatures were measured at 37.3°C on Tuesday afternoon, the National Meteorological Institute (Inmet) reported. “I’m exhausted, it’s hard,” complained 22-year-old Riquelme da Silva to AFP.
“When I come home, it’s (like) cold water, otherwise I can’t even get up because I’m so tired. I can’t even sleep,” she added. According to 60-year-old saleswoman Dora, the heat is “unbearable” for those who work outside.
According to meteorologists, the heat should last at least until Friday. They attribute the heat wave to the El Niño phenomenon and climate change.
The boy
The extreme temperatures and records this summer are not a surprise, but proof that the warnings were not in vain. Even so, some fluctuations were incredible, Samantha Burgess from the EU Copernicus monitoring system tells Nauzal.
Increasing global temperatures due to climate change are no longer mitigating La Niña. The cold oceanic and atmospheric phenomenon has ended and is being replaced by a neutral period after three years. It will be followed by a warm El Niño phenomenon that may bring new records.
A heat wave that hit the southern hemisphere more than a month before the start of summer has seen Brazil’s energy consumption hit record highs as people struggle to stay cool.
Inmet research published last week showed that the country’s average temperature from July to October was above the historical average. The South American country has recently experienced many extremes in a row.
Based on its data from the beginning of November, the Brazilian space agency INPE has already recorded 2,387 individual fires in the marshy Pantanal region on the border with Paraguay and Bolivia.
The number represents the highest number for this month since records began in 1998, more than double the total of October and more than half of all fires seen since the start of the year. On Sunday alone, INPE recorded 706 active fires, ČTK summarizes.
In the past few weeks, the south of the country has been hit by heavy rains, which also flooded the well-known Iguazú waterfalls (more here).
The extraordinary drought affected the Amazon region in particular. Because of him, for example, dozens of rock formations with engravings of human faces emerged from the river, which may be over 2000 years old (more here).
Drought combined with extremely high temperatures may have also contributed to the death of 125 Amazonian river dolphins. Their remains were found in the water and on the beaches after temperatures in Lake Tefé reached a staggering 39.1 degrees Celsius (more here).
