Brazil Raises Heat Wave Alerts to Red in Parts as Records Fall and Danger Persists Through Monday

Overview

• Inmet extended and intensified warnings through Monday, maintaining orange alerts across eight states and elevating “great danger” red alerts for Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and portions of Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Goiás.
• São Paulo set a December record at 35.9 °C on Dec. 25 and climbed to 36.2 °C on Dec. 26, while Rio reached 40.1 °C and municipal health services reported 973 heat-related attendances in two days.
• The event meets deviation-based heat-wave criteria of roughly 5 °C above average for multiple days, with Inmet’s color scale escalating to red when anomalies persist beyond five days.
• Forecasts show extreme heat holding over the Southeast through Dec. 29 as a developing front and cyclone begin to shift the pattern, bringing the first signs of relief to some areas afterward.
• In the South, Inmet warns of storm totals near 100 mm per day and strong winds up to 100 km/h in parts of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, with risks of lightning, flooding and isolated hail.