Did Amazon blazes cause dark skies in São Paulo? Experts say not quite

Sitting just south of the Tropic of Capricorn, the winter sun in São Paulo tends to set shortly before 6 pm. However, by around 3.30pm on Monday afternoon, thick black clouds covering the city shrouded São Paulo in abnormal darkness. By 4 pm, the sky was near black, startling residents and provoking wild debates on social media.

On Twitter, “it’s 4 pm” became the number one trending topic around the country, with São Paulo residents posting apocalyptic landscapes of their city, two hours before sunset. Initial reports from mainstream media were lighthearted, with Folha de S.Paulo tweeting that the city got dark “out of nowhere,” while UOL compared scenes to something out of TV series Stranger Things and Gotham.

The National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) quickly responded by saying the darkness was caused by abnormally heavy low clouds and an incoming cold front, but Brazilian netizens had other ideas, sparking a minor moral panic on social media.

Smoke from the North

A number of Twitter accounts suggested...