South America engulfed in flames, breaking wildfire records

Wildfires are raging across much of South America, from Brazil's Amazon rainforest to the world's largest wetland and tropical dry forests in Bolivia.

According to satellite data analyzed by the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (Inpe) from the beginning of 2024 to September 11, there were 346,112 wildfire hotspots in all 13 South American countries, surpassing the 2007 record of 345,322 hotspots in the data series that began in 1998.

Smoke from fires in Brazil has darkened the skies over cities like Sao Paulo, joining a corridor of wildfire smoke visible from space that stretches diagonally across the continent from northwest Colombia to southeast Uruguay.

Brazil and Bolivia have mobilized thousands of firefighters in an effort to control the fires, but are facing difficulties due to severe weather that is making the fires increasingly serious.

Scientists say that while most of the fires are caused by humans, recent hot and dry weather conditions caused by climate change are causing them to spread faster. South America has been hit by a series of scorching heat waves since last year.

Karla Longo, an air quality researcher at Inpe, said Sao Paolo had no winter when the temperature there was 32 degrees Celsius (92 degrees Fahrenheit) on September 7, despite it being winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

According to Brazil's national disaster monitoring agency Cemaden, last year the country recorded its worst drought in history.

According to Inpe data, the largest number of forest fires this month were in Brazil and Bolivia, followed by Peru, Argentina and Paraguay.

Unusually fierce fires in Venezuela, Guyana and Colombia earlier this year contributed to a record number of fires in South America, but have since eased.

Expert Longo said the Amazon forest fire has caused a large area (about 9 million km2, equivalent to half of South America) to be covered in smoke, like an atomic mushroom cloud.

Due to the effects of wildfires, Sao Paulo, the most populous city in the Western Hemisphere, had the worst air quality globally earlier this week, higher than even famous pollution hotspots like China and India, according to the website IQAir.com.