Sep 23, 2010
Mato Grosso Continues to Endure a Relentless Dry Season
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
We have heard a lot recently about how the extended dry season in central Brazil has delayed the start of soybean planting, but the dry weather also continues to take a toll on the residents and livestock of Mato Grosso. Last Thursday, the temperature in Cuiaba, the capital of Mato Grosso, reached 41.9 C (108 F), which is the highest temperature recorded anywhere in Brazil during 2010. This temperature was only 0.3 C shy of the all-time record for Cuiaba, which is 42.1 C (109 F) set 61 years ago in 1949.
The city of Cuiaba is famous in Brazil for being one of the hottest cities in the country. In fact, the city of Cuiaba does have the highest annual temperature for any state capital in Brazil. In this hot city, the hottest time of the year is September, October, and November. It's extra hot during this time of the year because of the intense sunshine and lack of cloud cover and cooling showers.
Today, September 21st, the noon time sun is directly over the Equator on its way to the Southern Hemisphere. On December 21st, it will be directly above the Topic of Capricorn (21.5 degrees south latitude), which runs across northern Parana. The state of Mato Grosso lies between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn so between now and December, the sun is almost directly above the state, which make the rays more intense and the temperatures hotter. The sun will once again be directly above the Equator on March 21st on its way back to the Northern Hemisphere. With clear skies this time of the year, the sun can get very intense and the temperatures very high. Once the rainy season starts, the temperatures cool to the 90's, but then the humidity increases (you just can't win).
In much of Mato Grosso as well as the rest of central Brazil, it hasn't rained since early April and all the vegetation is tinder dry, or as they say in Mato Grosso "It's so dry that if you rub two blades of grass together, they will spontaneously combust." Adding to the misery of the residents of central Brazil is the fact that the air also is full of smoke and dust causing breathing problems for the young and the old.
Fires have been burning all across the state in recent weeks in the native cerrado and in pastures as ranchers burn off the dry grass in preparation for the rainy season. Within a few days of burning off the dry grass, new green shoots start to appear, which will be the first green grass the cattle have eaten in months. Unfortunately, the situation took a tragic turn earlier last week when 60 cattle were burned to death just outside of the city of Rondonopolis. Fire from a neighboring pasture jumped a fence when the owner was absent. By the time he was notified that his pasture was on fire, he could not get there in time to cut the fence and save his animals. He managed to save a few head, but tragically sixty succumbed to the fire.