Brazil is experiencing a heat wave in the middle of the southern winter and the metropolis of Sao Paulo could break a double temperature record on Thursday: for the month of August and for the year 2023.
According to the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet), residents of Latin America’s largest city of 11.5 million people are experiencing temperatures almost 10 degrees above the monthly average of 24.5C.
The thermometer reached 32.3 °C on Wednesday, not far from the 32.5 °C of January 16, the hottest day of the year in this metropolis.
AFP
On August 31, 1952 and 1955, 33.1 °C were almost the maximum temperatures measured for August.
According to Inmet, which began in 1943, Thursday could be the hottest day for a month in August and the whole year.
“In the future, winters are likely to get warmer and warmer,” Fabio Luiz Teixeira, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Sao Paulo, told AFP.
According to scientists, these high temperatures are the result of climate change and the recent recurrence of the El Niño phenomenon.
“Today we have temperatures five degrees above average in some regions or cities of Brazil,” said Cleber Souza, weather forecaster at Inmet.
AFP
Souza also warned of high temperatures in the state of Mato Grosso (central west) near 41 degrees and in the north and northeast of the country approaching 40 degrees.
Authorities in the state of São Paulo, which had already recorded above-average temperatures and below-average rainfall in July, reported a high risk of fire.
The southernmost part of South America experienced record winter heat.
Heatwaves – like those currently crushing large parts of Europe – are starting earlier, lasting longer and becoming more intense due to climate change, a UN expert warned in an interview with AFP.
“It’s only going to get more intense and frequent,” John Nairn, senior adviser on extreme heat at the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization (WMO), told AFP. “People are way too quiet,” he lamented.