after floods, Brazil is threatened by a “severe” drought

One extreme weather event after another. After unprecedented floods in May in southern Brazil, this same region risks facing a drought “severe”warned the Brazilian Minister of the Environment on Wednesday June 5.

“After the heavy rains we will have drought, probably in the Amazon and the Pantanal”, said Marina Silva during an official ceremony in the presence of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The minister recalled that these episodes of drought are often accompanied by “terrible forest fires”.

She also mentioned a “severe drought” ongoing in the semi-arid region of Caatinga, in northeastern Brazil, as well as that to come in the south of the country, hit by floods which have left more than 170 dead. These extreme climatic events are due to “combination of weather phenomena like El Niño and intensifying climate change”assured the Minister of the Environment.

These historic floods have been made twice as likely by climate change, which has “intensified” torrential rains, according to a study by the World Weather Attribution scientific network. “Climate change amplifies the impact of El Niño in southern Brazil, making an extremely rare episode more frequent and more intense“, says the report.