Weather Forecast: BH will have the hottest day in history on Saturday with 38ºC

Belo Horizonte is about to face the hottest day in its history, or at least the series of measurements from the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) started 110 years ago. Thermometers are expected to reach maximum temperatures of around 38ºC in the city next Saturday (3) and there is no estimate of when the heat will give the mining capital a break. By the way, it was found that Monday (28) was the hottest day in the history of the month of September, and in the afternoon the thermometers registered 37.3ºC in some points of BH – the record for the hottest day in history belongs to October 2015, date in which the temperature reached 37.7ºC.

In addition to high temperatures in Belo Horizonte, low air humidity levels are expected to reach 10% on Tuesday afternoon (29). This percentage is extremely characteristic of arid regions of the planet such as the Sahara desert, the warmest in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a state of care as soon as the humidity reaches a percentage below 30%, and below 10% it is considered a state of danger and risk to health.

The heat and the dry climate are, according to the meteorologist Cléber Souza, a combination of the continental air mass that acts over the central region of Brazil and the beginning of spring. “We know that the transition from one season to the next, especially the beginning of spring, brings record heat. This is because we are leaving winter, which is a very dry period without clouds, and entering spring, a period of greater intensity of sun. That is why temperatures rise so much ”, he details.

An example is that at dawn on Tuesday the thermometers were already marking temperatures close to 24ºC as in the Pampulha meteorological station. “There is no relief in Belo Horizonte. The air humidity is very low and we breathe very bad air, a result of pollution caused by cars and fires that occur near the capital. These two events cause the formation of dry fog, an appearance of smoke, which we can see in the early morning and at dusk. The orange we see at sunset is the pollution near the surface, ”explains the Inmet meteorologist.

The trend is that, today, the maximum remains around 37ºC, but for Wednesday (30) a slight decrease is expected with a maximum temperature of 35ºC. “We will have the approach of a cold front across the continent, the approach of the entire cold front favors the rise in temperatures and therefore we will probably have record heat between Friday and Saturday. These fronts that arrive by the State have not been enough to break the continental air mass that operates in the country ”, he explains. According to Cléber Souza, it may drizzle in Belo Horizonte on Sunday (4) due to the arrival of the cold front, but the heat will last.

Start of the rainy season

Belo Horizonte has experienced a heat wave since Saturday (26), a phenomenon that is detected when high temperatures are recorded for five consecutive days. The wave does not give respite, at least, until next Sunday. It remains for the population of BH and the metropolitan region to wait until the end of October. “Only in late October will we have cold fronts strong enough to break the air mass lockdown. These fronts will bring rain and kick off the rainy season that also runs through November. The temperatures also promise to be much milder in these circumstances, ”says Cléber.

Explain that the rains will be intense this spring due to the La Niña phenomenon. “Last year we had a neutral year, but this year we are under the influence of La Niña that works in spring. Therefore, we will have a rainier spring, with more clouds and the temperatures do not rise as much. But that’s only when the rainy season sets in. “

Year of extremes

The worst rain in history and the hottest day in history. These are the two meteorological phenomena that will have characterized the year in which the month of December ends. In January, the city of Belo Horizonte experienced the worst rain in 110 years, a phenomenon that caused countless disasters and deaths not only in the capital of Minas Gerais, but also in the state of Minas Gerais. Now, the month of September is already considered the hottest since the beginning of the historical measurement by Inmet and, probably, Saturday will be confirmed the hottest day in history.