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Manaus and other nearby cities are also suffering from high temperatures and heavy smoke from nearby man-caused fires for deforestation and pasture clearance. The drought is also the likely cause of dozens of river dolphin deaths in Tefe Lake, near the Amazon River.
This is a startling contrast to July 2021, when Negro River waters took over part of the Manaus downtown area. The historic flood, which also ruined crops of hundreds of riverine communities, lasted for about three months.
Negro River ends near Manaus, where it converges with the Amazon River, which is called the Solimoes River in Brazil upstream from this confluence. In Brazilian maps, this marks the beginning of the Amazon, with Negro as the second main tributary. In international maps, however, the Amazon River begins in Peru.
Philip Fearnside, an American researcher at the Brazilian National Institute of Amazonian Research, a public agency, expects the situation to deteriorate, both during the ongoing event and in the future with increasing frequency and severity of similar events with climate change.
He said surface water in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean is now warmer than during the “Godzilla” El Niño of 2015-2016 and is expanding.
In the Amazon, these Pacific warming events primarily lead to droughts in the northern part of the region.
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Moreover, a warm water patch in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean is causing drought in the southern part of the Amazon, similar to what happened in 2005 and 2010, according to researchers.
“The forecast is for the start of the rains to be delayed compared to normal, and for a drier-than-normal rainy season,” Fearnside said.
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“This could result not only in extreme low water this year, but also low levels in 2024. Until the rainy season begins in the basin, the situation that is already underway should worsen.”
AP
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