Residents of the city of São Paulo reported the smell of burning and smoke in the air in several parts of the city, early this Friday morning (9). There were complaints from the central region, from Butantã, in the west, from Itaquera and Penha, in the east, and from Saúde, Jardim Aeroporto and Interlagos, in the south.
According to the Climatempo agency, much of the Southeast and even the South of the country have records of smoke clouds from fires from the Amazon and Central-West of Brazil. Despite this, it is not possible to directly associate possible smells of smoke in the São Paulo air to the Amazon fires.
There are fires in the state of São Paulo itself. According to data from Inpe (National Institute for Space Research), since the beginning of September, 141 hotspots have been identified by satellite images.
In addition, in the metropolitan area of the city it is common to find people making small fires to warm up and cook, and it is also not uncommon to find garbage being burned. .
Cetesb (Environmental Company of the State of São Paulo) also does not relate the smell to fires in the Amazon. In a statement, the company states that the transport of the pollution plume coming from the Amazon and from the fires in the Center-West usually occurs at high altitudes in the atmosphere.
Some of this material, however, can reach lower altitudes, depending on the situation.
“Given the data, it is not possible to infer which portion of the observed levels [de material particulado] would be caused by a possible contribution of this plume and which is associated with the city’s usual emission sources, such as vehicles and industries, among others”, says Cetesb. found in the winter season, in similar weather conditions.”
For meteorologist Carine Gama, from Climatempo, the fires that occur in general in Brazil may reflect the estrangement that people report in relation to the air. “All this circulation of winds helps transport all this smoke to a good part of MT, MS, PR and SP. So, yes, we feel all this reflection”, she says.
Even if it is not responsible for the smell, the cloud of smoke from the fires in the Amazon could already be seen on Thursday (8) by satellite images made available by Inpe – there are millions of square kilometers affected.
According to Climatempo, particles advance towards the state of Paraná because of winds at an altitude of 1.5 km that come from the North region.
Until the beginning of next week, the smoke should continue towards the northwest of Paraná and will interact with the rain, which already causes hail in Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.
A resident of the capital of São Paulo used social media this Friday morning to say that the center of São Paulo was being crossed at that moment by smoke “coming from the Amazon on fire”.
“I woke up in fright with the smell of burning. What did they do to this country?”, asked Patrícia Lima on Twitter.
The Cetesb (Environmental Company of the State) says that a detailed evaluation of the measurement data of the air quality stations in the capital is in process.
On August 19, 2019, the day in São Paulo became dark in the middle of the afternoon, thanks to intense fires in the Amazon and also large fires in Paraguay.
The extent of the gray cloud can also be seen by the European atmospheric monitoring service Copernicus.
In addition to fires —associated with high levels of deforestation— in the Amazon, areas of burning in Bolivia also contribute to the situation.
In six days of September, the Amazon already has more than 16,000 fires — practically the same amount recorded in the entire month of September 2021.
According to the CGE (Emergency Management Center), of the São Paulo City Hall, the temperature remains high and above average in the city this Friday, with low levels of air humidity until this Saturday (10), when there is an expectation of a little of rain, which can lessen the sensation of the smell of smoke.
“The passage of a cold front along the coast of São Paulo, with rapid displacement and little rainfall this weekend, changes the direction of the winds and promotes a decline in temperatures in the coming days”, says the agency.
According to Inmet (National Institute of Meteorology), the temperature fluctuates between 18°C and 32°C this Friday, but drops to 12°C and 17°C on Sunday, with isolated rains. The cold should follow in the first days of next week.
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