By Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A powerful cold air mass of polar origin is progressing over Brazil during the first week of July 2019. Between July 1st and 8th, the country should feel a very intense cooling, which occurs only a few times during the winter.
It will most likely be the most intense in 2019 and perhaps the only one of this magnitude this year.
The cooling will initially be felt over the South of Brazil on July 1st, but it will begin to extend throughout the country from Wednesday, July 3rd. The peak of this cold wave should occur on July 5th and 6th.
The influx of this polar mass is in line with Climatempo’s weather forecast that the 2019 winter cold season would be centered in July.
The projections for this unusually sharp cooling in the first week of July does not change the estimates that the 2019 winter will experience few cold events and is under the influence of a feeble El Niño.
The expected cold has the potential to produce below-freezing temperatures in the south and close to 0ºC in the southeast and center-west. However, the 10ºC chill may be felt in Bahia and the north-central areas of Goiás.
The maps show the projected temperature for 6 AM according to the GFS (United States) forecast model, in a simulation carried out on June 30th.
The cold is again felt in Acre, southern Amazonas, and Rondônia. The cold wind resulting from this polar mass should reach areas of south-central Pará and Tocantins and the interior of the northeast.
Frost may generally form over the south of Brazil, reaching Curitiba and the north of Paraná, and in areas of the midwest and southeast. This time, frost may be severe in areas of the south and southeast, with consequent damage to agriculture.
Frost may occur in Mato Grosso do Sul, in many areas of São Paulo, including Greater São Paulo, in central, western and southern Minas Gerais, in the highlands and southern Rio de Janeiro.
The risk of frost in southern Goiás and high-altitude areas on the border between Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, such as the Caparaó mountain range, should not be ruled out.
Please note that these forecast figures may change over the next few days and may also differ from those projected by Climatempo’s meteorologists. This simulation serves only as an indication of the potential for intense cold.