Amazon basin is facing its worst drought in history

The El Niño weather pattern has wreaked havoc in Brazil already this year, with an unprecedented heat wave hitting much of the country during the end of winter and more than one extratropical cyclone battering Brazil’s South in the space of a few weeks. But the phenomenon that alters rainfall around the world is also on the verge of contributing to catastrophe in the Brazilian Amazon, with the region facing the risk of its biggest drought since records began.

While drought in itself sounds like an emergency, it is actually a yearly occurrence in the Amazon region. For about two-thirds of the year, water levels in the basin’s rivers rise due to heavy rainfall, before falling sharply during the annual dry season. Droughts typically leave river levels far below average, but this year has taken them to dangerously low levels.

To put the current situation into perspective, the biggest drought ever recorded in the state of Amazonas occurred in October 2010. In late September of that year, levels of the Rio Solimões — as the western portion of the Amazon River is called — measured in the western city of Tabatinga were almost 130 centimeters higher than they are at present.

While rainfall patterns vary from year to year and place to place in Amazonas, the apex of the region’s droughts typically come in mid-October, raising fears in dozens of municipalities that this year’s drought may well break all-time records.

Of the 62 municipalities in Amazonas state, four have already declared a state of emergency; 15 are on a state of high alert; another 13 are in a state of “attention.” According to the state’s Civil Defense, all but two cities in Amazonas are expected to be in a state of full emergency by the middle of October.

Drought in the state of Amazonas takes on different and more challenging contours...