In Other News, Brazil Is Drying Up 0
I mentioned somewhere earlier in these ramblings that, wherever I go, I get the local rag. The local rag where I am today had a very interesting story of weather and devastation. Not rapid devastation, as we saw in New Orleans and Florida, but slow devastation (warning: free registration required to read the entire article):
MANAQUIRI, Brazil – While hurricanes thousands of miles away battered the United States and the Caribbean with water and wind, the residents of this fishing town deep in the Amazon region watched the lake they depend on shrivel away.
Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians across seven states have been hit this year by the region’s worst drought in four decades – the result, meteorologists say, of warmer ocean water, which also is being blamed for one of the most violent hurricane seasons on record around the Gulf of Mexico.
(snip)
The last time the Amazon felt such withering conditions was in 1963, meteorologists say. Less severe droughts have hit parts of the Amazon twice over the past decade during the annual dry season, which runs from July to September.
This year, some towns, such as Tabatinga near the Colombian and Peruvian borders, received a fifth of their normal rainfall. Water levels on the Amazon and other rivers have dropped as much as 33 feet.
