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The Climate of Brazil varies considerably
from the mostly tropical North (the equator
traverses the mouth of the Amazon) to
temperate zones below the Tropic of
Capricorn (23°27' S latitude), which crosses
the country at the latitude of the city of
São Paulo. Brazil has six climatic regions:
equatorial, tropical, semiarid, highland
tropical, temperate, and subtropical.
Temperatures along the
equator are high, averaging above 25°C
(77°F), but not reaching the summer extremes
of up to 40°C (104°F) in the temperate
zones. There is little seasonal variation
near the equator, although at times it can
get cool enough for wearing a jacket,
especially in the rain.
At the country's other
extreme, there are frosts south of the
Tropic of Capricorn during the winter
(June-August), and in some years there are
snowfalls on the high plateau and
mountainous areas of some states. Snow falls
more frequently in the states of Rio Grande
do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Paraná and less
frequently in the states of São Paulo, Rio
de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Espírito
Santo. Temperatures in the cities of Belo
Horizonte and Brasília are moderate, usually
between 15ºC (59°F) and 30°C (86°F), because
of their elevation of approximately 1,000
meters. Rio de Janeiro, Recife, and Salvador
on the coast have warm climates, with
average temperatures ranging from 23ºC
(73.4°F) to 27°C (80.6°F), but enjoy
constant trade winds. The cities of São
Paulo, Curitiba, Florianópolis and Porto
Alegre have a subtropical climate similar to
that of southern United States and Europe,
and temperatures can fall below freezing in
winter.
Precipitation levels
vary widely. Most of Brazil has moderate
rainfall of between 1,000 and 1,500 mm a
year, with most of the rain falling in the
summer (between December and April) south of
the Equator. The Amazon region is
notoriously humid, with rainfall generally
more than 2,000 mm per year and reaching as
high as 3,000 mm in parts of the western
Amazon and near Belém. It is less widely
known that, despite high annual
precipitation, the Amazon rain forest has a
three- to five-month dry season, the timing
of which varies according to location north
or south of the equator.
High and relatively
regular levels of precipitation in the
Amazon contrast sharply with the dryness of
the semiarid Northeast, where rainfall is
scarce and there are severe droughts in
cycles averaging seven years. The Northeast
is the driest part of the country. The
region also constitutes the hottest part of
Brazil, where during the dry season between
May and November, temperatures of more than
38°C (100.4°F) have been recorded. However,
the sertão, a region of semidesert
vegetation used primarily for low-density
ranching, turns green when there is rain.
Most of the Center-West has 1,500 to 2,000
mm of rain per year, with a pronounced dry
season in the middle of the year, while the
South and most of the East is without a
distinct dry season.
Some text and data sourced and adapted
from
WikiPedia |
