Since 2019 large parts of Argentina and neighboring countries have been reeling under drought conditions with the last four months of 2022 receiving only 44% of the average precipitation: the lowest rainfall in 35 years.
A large area centred around the central-northern part of Argentina, and also southern Bolivia, central Chile, and most of Paraguay and Uruguay, experienced record-breaking temperatures during two consecutive heatwaves in late November and early December 2022.
Throughout May 2022 and extending into June, Eastern Northeast Brazil experienced catastrophic floods and landslides following exceptionally heavy rainfall.
WWA partner and deputy director of the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute (ECI) Friederike Otto is the lead author of a new study published in Nature Climate Change.
South east Brazil experienced profound water shortages in 2014–15. Anthropogenic climate change was not found to be a major influence on the hazard, whereas increasing population and water consumption increased vulnerability.