Despite still being in winter, Brazil is expected to record one of the highest temperatures in the world this weekend, comparable to places such as Iran and Iraq. A heat wave has affected all regions of the country, and is mainly causing harm to the Amazon region, which is experiencing one of its driest periods in recent years.
With the hotter and drier climate, Amazon states are recording more fires than normal for this time of year, which is already naturally drier. The last month with heavy rains in the region was February, and all other subsequent months had less rain than average.
According to the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), Amazonas had 5,224 fire outbreaks identified by satellites in the first 20 days of September. The number far exceeds the historical average (from 1998 to 2022) of 3,003 fires per month. The governors of Acre and Amazonas states declared an environmental emergency.
The fires in the Amazon are so extensive that the capital of Amazonas state, Manaus, has seen buildings covered in white smoke for the last two days. Navigation on stretches of the Amazon River was restricted in some places at night and for larger vessels due to the risk of them becoming stuck.
Climatic conditions also risk the appearance of a “smoke belt” linking the Amazon to Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil’s two geographical extremes of the country). In Porto Alegre, capital of the southernmost state, sunsets have been unusually orange due to smoke particles in the atmosphere.
In the Center-West region of the country, fire engulfed 500 hectares of Bonito, one of the main tourist cities in Mato Grosso do Sul state – where thermometers are expected to reach 42ºC in the coming days. Fires also affected mountains in the south of Tocantins state, and were only controlled after three days.
July was the hottest month recorded in the world’s history. The Brazilian Report has shown that the average temperature across all Brazilian regions has increased consistently over the last decades. In São Paulo, the most populous city in Latin America, average July temperatures between 1991 and 2020 were almost three degrees Celsius higher than they were between 1931 and 1960.
In Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon rainforest, that same gap is one degree.
This heat wave caps a highly eccentric winter in Brazil this year, a season of extreme weather variations. The El Niño weather phenomenon may be to blame for this unusual climate scenario, caused by the warming of surface waters in the Pacific Ocean, which contributes to a change in the rainfall patterns in Brazil.
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