According to the National Institute of Space Research (Inpe), the first two weeks of November have already seen 2,387 instances of fires in Brazil’s Pantanal tropical wetland, in the country’s Center-West region. There were just 57 fires in the same region during the same period last year.
Experts blame this huge increase on the delayed arrival of rainfall, and a heatwave spreading across central-western and southeastern Brazil. Temperatures in the Pantanal region of Mato Grosso do Sul state were forecast to hit 45°C today, and will rise even further between now and the end of the week.
Approximately 852,000 hectares of the Pantanal have been consumed by fire so far this year, and the situation risks getting worse as high temperatures are set to persist.
At the beginning of November last year, the Pantanal was already flooded, with the rainy season arriving in October as usual. However, the effects of the El Niño weather phenomenon have interfered with rainfall patterns and delayed the arrival of wet weather in the Pantanal, leaving the area incredibly dry. Meanwhile, some parts of Brazil’s Amazon are coming off the back of their worst drought in history.
The fire brigade of Mato Grosso state say that protected areas of the biome have been affected and that the blazes have largely been caused by lightning strikes, which have become more and more prevalent in the high temperatures. A wave of fires in 2020 destroyed around 26 percent of the Pantanal, devastating flora and fauna.
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