Experts note main reason for record drought in Amazon

The main reason for last year’s record drought in the Amazon region of Brazil was climate change due to human activity. An international team of experts at the World Weather Attribution (WWA) center came to this conclusion in their report posted on the WWA website.

According to these experts, the influence of El Niño on the weather in the Amazon basin was considerably weaker than experts assumed.

Climate changes have led to an increase in temperature and a decrease in rainfall. These factors increased 30 times in 2023 the probability of an unprecedented drought compared to the situation where the only factor would be El Niño, the authors of this study noted.

The WWA report was prepared by meteorologists from Brazil, the UK, the Netherlands, and the US. They compared modern climate observations with information obtained in the pre-industrial era.

In March 2023, the Brazilian Amazon was subjected to an unspeakable drought. Precipitation was considerably below normal, rivers had receded to record lows, and forest fires had become more frequent amid consistently high temperatures. And the abnormally high water temperature in the Amazon basin led to a massive death in fish and animals living in the region.