Amazon rainforest expected to continue burning in coming weeks
Little rain makes it unlikely that massive fires in Brazil's Amazon rainforest will be extinguished soon.
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| Fire in the Amazon rainforest in Mato Grosso state, Brazil on August 26. Photo:Reuters. |
Experts say only rain can extinguish the massive fires in the Amazon and that the Brazilian government's efforts, which include deploying troops and aircraft, will only deal with small blazes and prevent new ones from breaking out.
The Amazon’s rainy season typically begins in late September and takes weeks to bring widespread rain. Maria Silva Dias, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Sao Paulo, said the rains over the next 15 days are expected to be concentrated in areas that don’t need it, while the most severely burned areas of the Amazon are expected to receive little rain.
Refinitiv data shows that the far west and northwest of the Amazon will see more rain in the coming weeks, but eastern regions are likely to remain very dry. Even where rain does fall, it will be scattered showers.
“Surely the rain will put out some of the fires, but they will be small spots, not the whole area. We need more frequent rain over a large area and that will only happen around October,” Dias said, adding that heavy rains have to be concentrated in a short enough period of time to put out the fires, otherwise the water will evaporate.
Acre, a western Brazilian state bordering Peru, is expected to see the most rain in the Amazon region. The number of fires in the state is now more than double the number of fires recorded in the same period last year, with 90 recorded between August 21 and 25, according to data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
The Amazon, the world's largest rainforest, is being ravaged by record fires, up 79% from last year as of August 25. The Brazilian government has deployed 44,000 soldiers to the states of Roraima, Rondonia, Tocantins, Para, Acre and Mato Grosso to fight the fires. A C-130 Hercules transport plane also poured thousands of liters of water on the fire in Rondonia on August 24 in an effort to control the flames.
The Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations agreed to provide 20 million euros ($22 million) to address the disaster, but Brazil on August 26 refused the aid.and accused France, the host of the G7 summit, of "having colonialist intentions".