Photo: Eraldo Peres Associated Press The flames spread to the Pouso Alto environmental protection area in Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park in the state of Goias.
Louis Genot – Agence France-Presse and Carlos Fabal – Agence France-Presse respectively in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo
Published at 21:02
- Americas
Air quality at half mast in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, sunset red orange because of pollution: the smoke from the intense forest fires in the Amazon and other regions spreads in Brazil, and reaches the neighboring countries.
Nearly five million km2 have been affected by smoke in Brazil, or about 60% of the territory, according to estimates by Karla Longo, a researcher at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), based on satellite images.
“If we take into account the areas affected in neighboring countries and in the Atlantic Ocean, the area affected on Sunday was around ten million km2,” said the researcher in an email sent to AFP on Monday.
Argentinian and Uruguayan authorities have reported the presence of this smoke in several of their regions.
São Paulo (southeast of Brazil), the largest city in Latin America, was on Monday several times at the top of the ranking of the most heavily smoked major cities. polluted in the world, according to air quality monitoring company IQAir.
The level of fine particles (PM2.5) reached 69 micrograms per cubic meter, almost 14 times higher than the limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The air is very dry, very polluted. “We can barely breathe, it's suffocating,” laments Ieda Bandeira, a 76-year-old pastry chef, who says she “drinks a lot of water and puts wet clothes on the windows” to alleviate the dryness.
Respiratory problems
The situation is also worrying in Rio de Janeiro, where the level of fine particles is 26 micrograms per cubic meter, more than five times the WHO threshold.
In many Brazilian cities, health authorities are reporting a sharp increase in cases of people suffering from respiratory problems, asthma attacks, pneumonia or sinusitis.
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Photo: Evaristo Sa Agence France-Presse In many regions of Brazil, the sunset has taken on orange-red hues, like here in Brasilia.
“Every day, in the afternoon, the sun turns orange and the sky is very dark because of the smoke,” describes Jaqueline Almeida, 23, a resident of São Paulo.
These fires, most of which are of criminal origin according to the authorities, and often linked to agricultural activity, are spreading more easily due to a historic drought caused in particular by global warming, according to experts.
Smoke carried by the wind
Satellite images from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) clearly showed a thick cloud of gray smoke along the Andes mountain range toward the south of the continent on Monday.
This phenomenon is due to the “wind that channels the smoke toward the south,” meteorologist Estael Sias, from the Metsul forecasting company, explained to AFP.
Usually, this favors the formation of “flying rivers” that carry moisture from the Amazon toward the south. But due to the prolonged drought and fires, instead of precipitation, “the wind path carries smoke to several regions of Brazil.”
“The air quality is already poor because of the drought, but the smoke makes it worse by bringing soot nanoparticles,” adds the specialist.
According to INPE data, the number of fires in the Amazon since the beginning of the year has almost doubled compared to the same period in 2023.
Other regions of Brazil have been plagued by devastating vegetation fires in recent days, particularly in the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, about 250 km north of Brasilia, where more than 10,000 hectares have gone up in smoke.
Photo: Eraldo Peres Associated Press In the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, about 250 km north of Brasilia, more than 10,000 hectares went up in smoke.
Another phenomenon linked to the smoke from the fires: in many regions of Brazil, the sunset has taken on a red-orange hue.
“At sunset, the rays pass through nanoparticles invisible to the naked eye that give them this red-orange tone,” says Estael Sias.
According to her, the smoke is not expected to fade “without regular rainfall,” which is not expected “before October or November.”