The temperature reached 40°C for the first time in Manaus in 114 years. In the port of the Amazonian capital, the Rio Negro has reached its lowest level since 1902.
The state of Amazonas is experiencing an unprecedented drought, with high temperatures and low river levels breaking records dating back more than 100 years.
Climatempo confirmed with the National Institute of Meteorology the recorded historical temperature of 40°C in Manaus on October 10, 2023. It was necessary 114 years so much so that a temperature like this could be reached in the Amazon capital region, where Inmet has been regularly recording temperature and other meteorological variables since 1909.
Rio Negro in a drought situation, October 3, 2023 (Image: NASA/Landsat/OLI
Rio Negro with normal level, on October 8, 2022 (Image: NASA/Landsat/OLI
Since the end of September, Manaus has recorded successive heat records with temperatures above 39°C, reaching 40°C on 10 October.
Rio Negro has the worst drought in 121 years
With the brand of 13.38 metersthe Negro River reached his lowest level in 121 years of measurements in the port of Manaus this Wednesday 18 October. The historical record was broken for the second consecutive day. On October 17, 2023, the ruler of the port of Manaus scored 13.49 cm
These satellite images released by NASA this week show the brutal difference between the volume of water in the Negro River in October 2022 and October 2023. In the October 8, 2022 photo, the level was 19.59 meters. In the photo from October 3, 2023, the level of the Negro River was 15.14 meters.
Social and economic impacts of drought
This historic drought in the Amazon is causing serious disruption to the population. Boats run aground due to sandbars that form when the water level is much lower than normal. The population is already experiencing shortages of supplies, as they are unable to navigate the rivers. Fishing is also compromised by the death of large fish.
The severe drought that the Amazon is experiencing also has an impact on the economy of the state and the country. A production in the Manaus Free Trade Zone it too is already affected. There is no longer navigability in the main rivers of the Amazon for the grain transportation.
Since the beginning of this week, rain showers they are occurring in various locations in the Amazon, even with strong intensity. It also rained in the Manaus region.
The rain eases the heat somewhat, but is not enough to reverse the extreme drought currently observed.
El Nino
This extreme drought in northern Brazil is associated with El Niño phenomenonwhich develops in the equatorial Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru, and is already considered of strong intensity, but also with above normal temperatures observed in the North Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
The World Meteorological Organization announced this week that September 2023 was the sixth consecutive month of record heat on the planet’s ocean surface.
The great warming observed in the North Atlantic and the presence of El Niño cause a strong subsidence over the northern region of Brazil. This top-down air movement is global in scale and inhibits cloud growth and rain occurrence. The sharp decrease in cloud numbers allowed the surface to warm well above normal, raising temperatures and increasing evaporation.
El Niño combined with the warm tropical North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico cause drought in the Amazon
(Art: NOAA-based Climatempo)
Understand how higher-than-normal heat affects photosynthesis of trees in the Amazon and can cause leaf death.
Summer with El Niño
Although spring is climatologically a period of low rainfall in northern Brazil, the phenomenon El Niño is accentuating this normal characteristic of drought.
El Niño will continue to influence the climate in Brazil and around the world during the summer of 2023/2024. It is precisely in summer that the volumes and frequency of rainfall increase in the northern region of Brazil. The peak of the rainy season normally occurs in the months of February and March. But this year, due to El Niño, a summer with lower than normal rainfall.
Source: Terra
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