Heatwave Grips Brazil — São Paulo Confronts Water Strain as Storms Knock Out Power

Overview

• The national meteorology service kept a red alert for extreme heat in effect for roughly 1,200–1,284 municipalities across the Southeast, South and Center-West, with temperatures running about 5°C above average and the alert stretching into Monday.
• São Paulo’s integrated water system fell to 26.4% usable volume, keeping the region in Arsesp’s contingency band with nightly pressure reductions as the state urged immediate cutbacks in consumption and Sabesp reported intermittent supply, especially in higher neighborhoods.
• After a scorching day, rapid storms in Greater São Paulo left more than 160,000 addresses without electricity at the peak, with hail and dozens of fallen trees reported; outages eased to about 70,000 later at night as CGE maintained alerts for localized flooding.
• Federal prosecutors and public defenders formally pressed Rio de Janeiro’s state and city governments to activate urgent, coordinated measures for vulnerable groups within 24 hours, including cooling and hydration points and reinforced rescue capacity, as the city remained in heat stage 3.
• In Rio Branco, intense rain near 167 mm pushed the Rio Acre above its attention level—measured at 10.19 m in the morning and about 11.07 m by afternoon—triggering contingency actions after flooding, landslides and infrastructure damage; forecasts point to continued heat with more convective rain into early next week.