Data are from Monday (7.Oct.2024); Minas Gerais is the state with the most fires: 115 occurrences of this type
Brazil registered 976 fire outbreaks on Monday (7.Oct.2024). The data is from the system BDQueimadas of Inpe (National Institute for Space Research), released this Tuesday (8.Oct). The Amazon concentrates the largest portion of occurrences, with 389 – or 39.9%.
Minas Gerais is the state with the highest number of fires, with 115 outbreaks registered in 24 hours. It is followed by Rondônia (107) and Acre (104).
Of the 6 Brazilian biomes, 5 recorded the incidence of fire. The Cerrado had the 2nd highest number, with 223 outbreaks – 22.8% of the total.
Brazil ended the month of August 2024 with the worst number of fires in 14 years. There were 68,635 occurrences – the 5th highest in the historical series, which began in 1998. It was an increase of 144% compared to the same period in 2023.
September had 83,157 fires –the worst month of the year in terms of number of fires so far. Last month was September with greater number of fires since 2010, when 109,030 fires were recorded.
Compared to last year, which recorded 46,498 fire points in September, the increase was 78.74%. Traditionally, this is the month in which the peak of fires is recorded in Brazil, which continues until October.
In October, the country accumulated 8,560 fires. In 2024, there will already be 218,768 such occurrences.
The country is experiencing, in addition to the increase in fire outbreaks, a historic drought, with the worst drought in 44 years, according to Cemaden (National Center for Monitoring and Alerts of Natural Disasters), linked to MCTI (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation ).
Understand the causes:
Drought and drought that affect most municipalities are common in the Brazilian winter. The season started in June and continues until the end of September. However, the intensity at which they occur in the season this year is atypical. There are 2 factors that most impact the scenario:
- strong heat waves – there have been 6 since the start of the season, according to Cemaden (National Center for Natural Disaster Monitoring and Alerts). On the other hand, the cold waves were only 4;
- anticipation of drought – in some regions of Brazil, the dry period began before winter. In the Amazon, for example, the drought intensified almost 1 month ahead of schedule, at the beginning of June.
In the Amazon region, in addition to the fires, the drought is taking on worrying forms. Amazonian municipalities face around 1 year of drought. It is the longest drought on record. There are 3 main causes:
- El Niño intensity – the rainfall regime was impacted by the phenomenon that warms the waters of the Pacific Ocean. It peaked at the beginning of this year and influenced the beginning of the drought;
- abnormal warming of the waters of the North Tropical Atlantic – the temperature in the maritime region, which is above South America, increased by 1.2 °C to 1.4 °C in 2023 and 2024;
- record global temperatures – in July, the world broke the record for higher temperature already recorded in history. The scenario creates conditions for stronger heat waves.
#Brazil #fires #Amazon