In the largest Amazon state, officials expect all but one municipality to declare a full state of emergency in the coming weeks. With rivers drying up, the region risks ending up isolated. @gnribeiro and @euanmarshall break down the latest
It seems like every week in 2023, the Brazilian media is talking about a new extreme weather event. Over a dozen states in the country have been on red alert over the last week thanks to an unseasonable heat wave that has seen thermometers break all sorts of records � something completely unprecedented for the end of winter.
This week, Brazil's South is set to be hit by a cyclone � or rather, yet another cyclone, after dozens died as a result of flooding earlier in September.
And amid all this, there's a drought in the Amazon � and not just any drought, potentially the worst on record.
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This episode used music from Uppbeat and Envato. License codes: Aspire by Pryces (B6TUQLVYOWVKY02S), Ecology Climate Crisis (5DEUXC7VQL) and Science Fiction Drama by GentleJammers (BDMCNMP)
In this episode:
Euan Marshall is The Brazilian Report's deputy editor, and covers environment and indigenous affairs.
Background reading:
Though it was at the end of winter, Brazil recorded some of the world's highest temperatures last week, and climatic conditions risk the appearance of a "smoke belt" from the Amazon to Brazil's South.
In late July, we highlighted that Brazil would be in for an eccentric winter, with extreme weather variations on the cards. That turned out to be correct.
And in May, we warned that El Niño would lead to a more severe dry period in the Amazon, with the risk of the forest becoming a "tinderbox ready to catch fire."
The state of Rio Grande do Sul is facing the risk of another extratropical cyclone. At the start of the month, flooding in the state left dozens dead.
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