What is the hottest place in Brazil?

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian climate presents itself as very diverse due to its geographical configuration. There is no shortage of examples of cold and heat throughout the year in several cities, but what would be the hottest place in Brazil?

It is necessary to have a long record made by monitoring stations scattered throughout Brazil to estimate the average maximum temperatures with reasonable accuracy.

In a conversation with Canaltech, Willians Bini, Head of Climatempo’s Agribusiness, explained that Brazil does not have many temperature monitoring stations. Therefore, sometimes a city may be known for its heat, but in the lack of official records, it is not pointed out as such.

The National Institute of Meteorology (INMET) has a history with the maximum averages recorded by 338 monitoring stations around the country between 1981 and 2010.

THE HOTTEST PLACE IN BRAZIL: CAICÓ, RIO GRANDE DO NORTE STATE

Caicó is a small town in Rio Grande do Norte, located in the region known as Seridó. Its climate is considered semi-arid, which means that, besides being dry, there is little rainfall there – with an average annual precipitation of 630 millimeters.

When it comes to the average maximum temperature, which covers decades of records, the heat in the city reaches 34.9°C. Still, throughout the year, the average temperature in the city hovers around 28°C. During the summer, the average high does not exceed 37.1°C, while in the winter, the minimum is 21.5 °C.

Even though it’s considered Brazil’s hottest place, it has not registered extreme temperatures. According to the INMET monitoring station, located in the city, the lowest temperature since 1995 was 16.3 °C, recorded in 2008. The maximum was 40.1 °C in 2003.

TOP FIVE HOTTEST PLACES IN BRAZIL

Like Caicó, the other five hottest places in Brazil are found in the Northeast region. Besides the geography that contributes to the hot climate, this part of the country’s extreme north is crossed by the Equator – the strip of the planet that receives most energy from the Sun.

• Caldeirão Grande do Piauí (Piauí State): Its average maximum temperature is 34.4°C. The annual average, however, does not exceed 29.2 °C in summer and no less than 20.3°C in winter;
• Picos (Piauí State): Its average maximum temperature is around 34.3 °C. During the summer, the highest average is 30.7 °C, and in winter, the lowest is 19.6 °C;
• Floriano (Piauí State): Its average maximum temperature is 34.2 °C. In summer, the maximum does not exceed 30.7 °C, and in winter, the minimum average is 21.8 °C;
• Piripiri (Piauí State): Its average maximum temperature is 34.2 °C. The average maximum in summer is 29.1 °C, while the average minimum, in winter, is not lower than 20.9 °C;
• Sobral (Ceará State): Its average maximum temperature is around 34.1 °C. In summer, the highest temperature is 28.5 °C, and the average minimum temperature in winter is 21.1 °C.

In 2021 a survey conducted by INMET considered the last decade (2011-2020) as Brazil’s warmest since historical records began in 1961. The document points to 2015, 2016, and 2019 as the hottest years.