Inmet Extends Brazil’s Red Heat Alert Through Tuesday as Storm Pattern Builds

Overview

• Inmet kept the highest-level warning over roughly 1,284 municipalities, covering all of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and parts of Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul.
• São Paulo set a December record of 37.2°C at Mirante de Santana, while interior towns such as Pedro de Toledo (42°C), Miracatu (41°C) and Itaóca (40°C) topped 40°C.
• Experts attribute the persistence of the event to a high‑level cyclonic vortex that created an atmospheric block, trapping hot, dry air over the Centre‑South.
• Climatempo, MetSul and Inmet forecast the block weakening, with fronts and a Paraguayan low organizing widespread rain and severe thunderstorms from the South into the Southeast and Centre‑West, including local totals near 80 mm and gusts around 60 km/h.
• Heat remains intense through Tuesday but is expected to ease from midweek as rain becomes more frequent, shifting risks to flooding and wind damage; Rio’s health system reported about 450 heat‑related attendances per day and authorities opened hydration points and a São Paulo crisis cabinet.