Weather extremes in South America

It’s so hot in Argentina and Uruguay that thousands of cows and chickens fall dead from heat stress

Strange Sounds,

3 February, 2019

While parts of the USA are frozen, thousands of animals are being killed by extremely hot temperatures in Argentina and Uruguay. Can you imagine that? Hundreds of cows falling dead in pastures and chicken asphyxiated in their farms as if their blood had boiled up and then evaporated. This is totally abnormal! This is completely crazy!

Hundreds of cows died from heat stress in Argentina in the last few days.

The first video was recorded in Trenque Lauquen, Argentina and shows some of the 700 bulls that died at the ranch ‘La Calendaria’ due to the heat record of the last few days:

The second video was recorded by a local farmer in campo de América (Bs As), Argentina as he walks through his pastures and describes how his cows died during the heat wave of the recent days:

On January 30, 2019, about 100 animals died again due to heat stress at Liniers Market in Buenos Aires after the ‘meat’ auctions. Some 70 reportedly died shortly after the morning auctions and another 30 at the berth or trucks.

The deadly heat wave is currently hitting the entire Buenos Aires region with temperatures that exceeded 45°C degrees.

Hundreds of cows died from heat stress in Argentina in the last few days

It however seems that this wave of hot temperature has also reached Uruguay where more than 100,000 chickens have already died from consequences of the extreme heat. According to specialists, increased chicken mortality is normal in summer, but such a peak was almost unprecedented.

Hundred thousands of chickens die due to heat wave in Uruguay.

Extreme cold in the North and extreme hot in the South… A normal Winter/Summer? Or there is something else going on?

Temperatures above 42-degrees Celsius (108 F) are causing overcrowding on Rio beaches as temps break 97 year old record in Brazil

Worldfortravel.com

Big Wobble,

3 February, 2019

Extreme heat has been affecting Australia and now southeastern Brazil.
Temperatures have spiked above 42-degrees Celsius (108 F).

In Rio de Janeiro, special measures are in place to help keep people and animals cool during the hottest summer in almost a century.

Rio's beaches have never been so crowded.

It is the only outdoor space for locals and tourists to find some relief from an unusual heat wave that started in late December.

"I am definitely happy that I am not in the snow, but is also very hot here," said American tourist Russ Franken.

"It's easy on vacation, but if I had to go, like, in public transportation to work every day, it would be terrible."

Ricardo Lira, a lawyer, agrees. Rio's Court of Justice, for example, relaxed its dress code allowing lawyers to ditch suits to cope with the heat.

"I think it's a healthy measure because coming to work with a coat and a tie is impossible.

Not inside the court, that has air conditioning, but to come and go with some 42 degrees is horrible." It's not just humans who are suffering from the sweltering heat.

At the Rio Zoo, lions are getting frozen meat and bears are getting giant fruit popsicles to avoid dehydration. There is a famous joke in Brazil that Rio has two seasons - summer and "hell."

And according to weather experts, this year's "hell" season is hotter than ever, setting records for scorching temperatures.

Thiago Sousa, a meteorologist at the National Institute of Meteorology, says a mix of factors have made Rio surpass historic maximums.

"It has been 97 years since Rio had such a hot January, until this year of 2019, when a warm air mass is hitting the state and the El Nino event is not allowing cold fronts to reach us."

While the heat wave keeps breaking records, a happy few can cool off at the beach, even as concerns linger.

Beachgoers and climate scientists alike say something is wrong with the weather, here, and everywhere.