Record Heat Bakes Brazil
10/29/2008 6:51 AM
The climate over much of the Brazil hinterland is one that alternates seasonly from dry to wet, then back to dry. The transition from dry to wet normally happens in Southern spring, which coincides with Northern fall. This shift normally puts an end to the hottest weather of the year, a time when the temperature can top 100 degrees owing to the dry earth.
October 2008 has been a hot month--maybe among the hottest on record--over a great deal of Brazil's vast interior. States from Mato Grosso, Goias and Minas Gerais north to Maranhao and Piaui have seen many days of 100-degree heat. Moreover, as of early this week, a time when summer's cooling rains should have set it, withering heat still held sway. In northern Minas Gerais on Tuesday, the high was 107 degrees at Aracuai and Arinos. At Brasilia, Brazil's highest big city and its capital, an all-time record high temperature of 96.4 degrees was reached. Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Forecaster Jim Andrews