“Everything indicates that this will be the hottest year in the history of the planet,” said Giovanni Dolif, meteorologist and researcher at the National Center for Monitoring and Warning of Natural Disasters (Cemaden). CNN.
July 2023 is considered the hottest month on record on planet Earth, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Union (EU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The meteorologist highlights two factors that could explain why so many heat waves have been recorded this year: the El Niño phenomenon and climate change.
Dolif explained that El Niño warms ocean waters and, therefore, forces warm air to rise in these areas. “If the air rises somewhere, it will have to come down somewhere else,” he added.
This movement causes the descent of hot and dry air masses in the north of the country, affecting temperatures throughout Brazil, in addition to favoring the appearance of rains in the southern region.
“We are already coming out of a warmer winter in Brazil. Heat waves caused by El Niño oscillations are causing us to reach historic temperature records,” he said.
For Dolif, we should continue to see fluctuations in global temperatures, but in the long term they tend to increase.
The weekend could be stormy
Dolif said the heatwave was expected to remain stronger until the end of this week, when heavy rains could occur.
“The weekend will be a transition period, and every time there is a transition there are strong storms, especially in the Southeast and part of the Midwest,” he said.
As long as temperatures remain high this week, heavy rains are expected to continue in the Southern region, but from the weekend they are expected to arrive in the Southeast, according to the meteorologist.
Nearly half of the country’s cities on danger alert
The National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) has warned that 15 states and the Federal District are in great danger of strong heatwaves until Friday (17). The phenomenon is expected to increase average temperatures by 5ºC during the period that includes the Republic Proclamation Day, Wednesday (15).
Nearly half of Brazil’s 5,568 municipalities are affected by the heat: 2,707. In the morning, the alert covered around 1,100 towns.
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