São Paulo city registers record low temperatures, expects further drops

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL –  The city of São Paulo experienced another cold day on Tuesday, June 29, with an average temperature of around 15°C, with overcast skies, drizzle, and moderate winds, and a minimum of 10°C in the early morning, according to INMET (National Institute of Meteorology).

The minimum temperature was the lowest of the year – the previous record had been set on May 26, when thermometers registered 10.8°C.

Tuesday registered the lowest maximum temperature of the year, at an average 15.4ºC in the city, according to the institute.

But the temperature should drop even further. According to the institute, the cold record of the year should be surpassed this Wednesday, June 30, and Thursday, July 1. However, no rain is forecast.

This is because the cold front that hit the capital is moving, but the polar air mass will still remain at least until Friday in the capital.

The first day the polar air mass hit São Paulo caused districts like Parelheiros and Capela do Socorro (south zone), Perus (north zone) and São Mateus (east zone), to experience a “feels like” temperature of 5°C, according to INMET’s meteorologist and head of the Weather Forecast Section Franco Nadal Junqueira Villela. “In more urbanized areas like the central region, it felt like 9°,” he explained.

According to Villela, on Wednesday the minimum temperature, which is usually recorded in the morning, should happen at night and could range between 5°C and 7°C in the expanded center, with a “feel like” between 2°C or 4°C.

“But in some less urbanized neighborhoods and cities near the capital as Itapecerica de Serra and Barueri, the minimum should be less than 4°C with the “feel like” temperature between 1°C and 2°C, in the evening and early morning,” he said.

According to the meteorologist, the cold front is leaving São Paulo, but the polar air mass will remain and cause even more cold. “The peak will be Thursday, and it will lose strength on Friday and Saturday,” he said.

Villela said that there is a possibility of frost in cities in the state of São Paulo that border Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul, and also in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo on Wednesday. In the Serra da Mantiqueira, the state’s highest incidence of frost, the conditions for frost formation will intensify on Thursday, with the skies clearing somewhat.

Data from CGE (Center for the Management of Climatic Emergencies), from the São Paulo City Hall, also indicate that the lowest maximum temperature of the year was recorded on Tuesday. The average temperature in the city stood at 15.4ºC. The lowest absolute maximum temperature recorded in a single location occurred in the Subprefecture of Parelheiros, South Zone, with 12ºC.