Summer starts in Brazil amid heavy rain alerts
Summer in the Southern Hemisphere starts this Wednesday (Dec. 21) at 6:48 pm Brasília time. Hotter days, shorter nights—but the sweltering sun brings with it pouring rain, intense winds, lightning, and thunderstorms.
The forecast from Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology for the new season shows frequent rainfall in most parts of the country—except in the southernmost regions of Rio Grande do Sul, the northeastern section of Roraima, and the eastern part of the country’s Northeast.
The North and the Central-West should see the highest volume of rainfall.
As happened last summer, the formation of the South Atlantic convergence zones—a meteorological phenomenon that marks the season and brings about significant rainfall—may be cause of concern, said Cleber Souza, analyst at meteorology institute INMET.
Even before the official onset of the season, over 90 municipalities in Minas Gerais state had declared state of emergency due to heavy downpours. By Tuesday, eight people had died in the state. In Santa Catarina, landslides triggered by torrential raining also claimed the lives of two people.
The above-average precipitation also brings good news in the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia—the region known as Matopiba—where the rain should favor the soybean, corn and cotton crops.
In Rio Grande do Sul, La Niña—the cooling of surface waters in a section of the Pacific Ocean—should continue to make an impact in drier summers and pose more challenges for farmers for the third consecutive year.
Summer ends on March 20, at 6:25 pm, when the Southern Hemisphere will usher in fall.
