Rio Grande do Sul has the third year of drought and “this is not normal”, says professor

Rio Grande do Sul, one of the largest agricultural producers in the country, is on track to complete its third consecutive year of severe drought in 2023. This is due to a succession of climatic events that, according to the professor at the USP Institute of Energy and Environment (IEE-USP), Pedro Côrtes, is not normal.

“Since mid-2020, Rio Grande do Sul has been facing these droughts with different intensities and this is due to the La Niña phenomenon”, he said in an interview with CNN this Saturday (25).

A natural and recurrent phenomenon on the continent, La Ninã, explains Côrtes, is responsible for, at the same time, causing rain in the North and Northeast regions, with repercussions in the Southeast – such as last week’s rains on the coast of São Paulo -, and drought in the southern region.

It’s the frequency and duration that are calling attention this time.

“We started with this La Niña period in the second half of 2020, it lasted until the middle of 2021, there was a short break and then La Niña returned for another year and a half”, he said.

“It is not a normal event, two La Niñas in a row, and this has severely punished Rio Grande do Sul and led to losses in the soybean and corn harvest for the second consecutive period in several cases.”

Côrtes also stated that deforestation in the Amazon is another problem that aggravates, among other things, droughts in the southern region, since clouds brought from the northern region are one of the sources of rain in the south.

“There is a lack of rain from the two fronts of the state: those that come from the south, and also those that could come from the Amazon and that have been scarce due to deforestation, which reduces the humidity placed in the atmosphere by the big trees”, he said.

Watch the full interview in the video above.

*(under the supervision of Letícia Brito)

Source: CNN Brasil

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