The city of Sao Paulo has recorded its coldest temperature in decades, with thermometers dropping below zero degrees

Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo, which four days ago saw temperatures of 33-35 degrees depending on the region, recorded its lowest temperature in decades on Tuesday, August 27, with thermometers falling below zero in several areas of the city’s southern zone. And in a true rollercoaster of climate change, weather forecasts point to a new heat wave in the city starting on Friday, the 30th, which will seriously affect the bodies and health of its 12 million inhabitants.

NIn the area of ​​Parelheiros, in the extreme south, this morning the thermometers of the Emergency Management Center (CGE) showed two degrees below zero, something unthinkable just a few years ago in a tropical country and in a city where temperatures are usually well above zero, a comfortable temperature even in winter, the season we are currently experiencing in Brazil. In the area of ​​Engenheiro Marsilac, near Parelheiros, the thermometers of the municipality recorded 1.7 degrees below zero, while in Capela do Socorro, another area in the south of the city, one degree, also negative.

At three o’clock in the morning in Itaquera, a densely populated area in the far east of the capital São Paulo, 56 km from Parelheiros and traditionally a warmer region due to the reduction of forests, thermometers registered only three degrees. In the city center, even full of huge skyscrapers, the temperature at that time was 3.8 degrees, a desperately low temperature, especially for the thousands of “homeless” living on the streets of the region.

At 7 a.m., with the sun already picturesque and high in the sky, the official temperature recorded by the main CGE thermometer in the Santana neighborhood, north of the city, was 5.7 degrees Celsius. That temperature alone, which will be the city’s official minimum temperature today, is already the lowest recorded by the instruments since 1999, 25 years ago.

In a very convincing attempt, but clearly not enough, all the shelters of the São Paulo City Council have provided maximum capacity for those who want to spend the night, and the Parque D. Pedro metro station in the old center has opened its doors to welcome and provide a hot meal to the homeless. But the total capacity of these shelters is just over 14,000 places, and the latest census conducted by the university has revealed that more than 80,000 people, including entire large families and the elderly, are currently living on the streets of São Paulo in the open air, in tents improvised from plastic and sheets, or simply sleeping on cardboard and trying to survive wrapped in blankets distributed by anonymous citizen volunteers.