Smoke from fires in Brazil covers large cities and neighboring countries. September 10, 2024

View of the city of São Paulo shrouded in smoke from forest fires in the Amazon, Brazil. - PHOTO: AFP

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Smoke from fires in Brazil covers large cities and neighboring countries.

RIO DE JANEIRO: Smoke from intense forest fires in the Amazon rainforest and other parts of Brazil was choking major cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on Monday and reaching neighboring countries.

Karla Longo, a researcher at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), said satellite images showed that 60% of Latin America's largest country had been affected by the smoke.

“If we consider the areas affected in neighboring countries and the Atlantic Ocean, the area affected on Sunday was around ten million km2,” she added.

Authorities in Argentina and Uruguay reported that smoke from the fires in Brazil reached parts of their countries on Monday.

São Paulo, Latin America's largest city, topped the ranking of the world's most polluted large towns on Monday, according to air quality monitoring company IQAir.

The rate of fine particles in the air - a measure of air quality - reached 69 micrograms per cubic meter, almost 14 times more than the limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Residents of the coastal city of Rio de Janeiro were facing rates of fine particles five times higher than the recommended limit.

The authorities blame human action for most of the recent fires in the country, which are generally linked to agricultural activity.

The situation has been exacerbated by the country's worst drought in seven decades, which experts attribute to climate change.

Satellite images from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showed a thick cloud of gray smoke along the Andes mountain range towards the south of the continent on Monday.

This is due to “the wind channeling the smoke south,” meteorologist Estael Sias told AFP.

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 battling terrible forest fires in recent days.

The vast Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, known for its many dramatic waterfalls, around 250 km from the capital Brasilia, has lost around 10,000 hectares of vegetation to flames in recent days.

Sias said that the situation is not expected to improve “without regular rains”, which is not likely “before October or November”.

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