Paraguay begins spring with temperatures above 40°C
Asunción, Sept 25 (EFE).- Paraguay’s Directorate of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) announced Monday that temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius in several cities during the first weekend of spring.
This is the second heat wave that the South American country has suffered in 2023.
According to the records of the official entity, the city of Mariscal Estigarribia, in the department of Boquerón (West), reached maximum temperatures between 43 and 43.6 degrees Celsius.
43.6°C were recorded on Sunday in Mariscal Estigarribia surpassing the record of 41.5°C degrees Celsius reached in 2018, the DMH published on its X account (formerly Twitter).
In Pozo Colorado (42/42.6 °C), General Bruguéz (41.6/42.5 °C) and Puerto Casado, maximum temperatures were between 40.8 and 42 degrees Celsius.
The previous maximum temperatures recorded were 41°C in Puerto Casado in 2001 and 38.4°C in General Bruguéz in 2020.
The temperature in the capital of Paraguay, Asunción, reached a record of 40.4°C on Sunday, breaking the maximum of 36.4°C recorded in 1994.
A high-pressure thermal dome, concentrated over the south-central part of South America, has been the cause of heat waves in recent months.
In early August, in the midst of winter, the Andean regions of Argentina and Chile recorded temperatures between 35 and 40 degrees Celsius.
Paraguay and Brazil also experienced widespread scorching heat.
Amid global trends of extreme heat, countries such as Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Brazil are facing unseasonably high temperatures.
Driven by the El Niño phenomenon, a warming of the equatorial waters of the Pacific Ocean that influences global weather patterns, the recurring heat has in the past caused temperatures 30 to 40 degrees above normal.
However, the oceans have been warming for years and the recent heat waves are consistent with climate change expectations.EFE
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