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The Pantanal already has the worst month of October in fires in history: from 1 to Wednesday (28), the most recent data available was recorded 2,825 fire points in the biome, according to data from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe).
The record so far this month was 2002, when 2,761 outbreaks had been recorded. Inpe monitoring began in 1998.
Fires in the Pantanal in October
Biome has the worst month since the beginning of the Inpe measurements, in 1998
Source: Inpe
The October outbreaks had also exceeded, 15 days before the end of the month, the total observed in the same period last year (see graph).
The October highs come after the biome had the worst monthly fires in history, of any month, in September. Before that, in the first 17 days of September, the records for that month had also been broken.
Annual fires in the Pantanal (2005-20)
High in relation to the previous record, of 2005, is 68%
Source: Inpe
The biome also recorded the worst July and the second worst August in history. This year was already the worst in fire points in the biome, which until 2018 was the most conserved in the country, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
Before, the highest accumulated figure had been registered in 2005, with 12,536 outbreaks throughout the year (see table above). The maximum for this year is already 68%.
Rain does not indicate the end of the drought
After drought and fires, heavy rains hit the Pantanal on the weekend
The Pantanal faces its worst drought in 47 years, contributing to the spread of the fire. The Pantanal biome is the largest floodplain in the world, but when it doesn’t rain, the plain doesn’t flood, allowing fire to spread.
Despite the recent rain seen in the biome (see video above), which caused the number of fires to drop several days this month, experts warn that recovery should take a long time.
Fires in the Pantanal in October
The rains helped reduce the number of outbreaks in a few days
Source: Inpe
“It will not be a rain that transforms the drought condition. The impacts caused by this long drought will act for some time in the region,” says researcher Marcelo Parente Henriques, from the Mineral Resources Research Company (CPRM), a public company . Brazilian.
The soil, which oscillates between vegetation and sediment, according to Henriques, becomes a biomass that remains as rotten peat, “an excellent material to burn,” says the expert.
With attributions of the Geological Service of Brazil, the CPRM monitors, among other data, the levels of Brazilian rivers.
