Buenos Aires hits 106 degrees amid severe South American heat wave

[Judi Lynn]

It’s the second-highest temperature recorded in the Argentine capital in 115 years, and 700,000 people there have lost power



Water vendors in the Palermo Woods park during a heat wave in Buenos Aires on Jan. 11. (Anita Pouchard Serra/Bloomberg News)

By Matthew Cappucci
Today at 12:03 p.m. EST

A multi-day heat wave is gripping parts of central South America, bringing record warmth to several large cities. Parts of Argentina are about 25 degrees above normal, while Chile, Paraguay and Bolivia are experiencing unusual warmth. Excess strain on power grids has caused widespread outages, leaving 700,000 people in the Argentine capital without electricity. The heat wave doesn’t appear to be letting up until this weekend.

The heat has been unusually pronounced for more than two weeks in Argentina, where temperatures topped 100 degrees to round out December. Areas south of the equator are experiencing summer at present, but readings are still wildly off base for what would typically be observed this time of year.



Buenos Aires Ezeiza Airport hit 104.2 degrees on Dec. 29, its highest December temperature on record and, at the time, highest overall temperature since 1999. The city’s observatory spiked to 41.1 degrees Celsius, or 106 degrees Fahrenheit, on Tuesday. Only one day — in January 1957 — had snagged a higher temperature in nearly 115 years of record-keeping.

Maximiliano Herrera, a climate historian who tracks international temperature records, described Tuesday as “a historic day in Buenos Aires.” The recent heat wave also represents the first time since 1995 that the Argentine capital has seen temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), meaning nobody there under the age of 26 has experienced temperatures this high before.

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/01/12/buenos-aires-hits-106-degrees-amid-severe-south-american-heat-wave/