Since mid 2023 the Amazon River Basin (ARB) has been in a state of exceptional drought, driven by low rainfall and consistently high temperatures for the entire year 2023 across the basin.
Large parts of South America suffered from extremely high temperatures for an extended period of time, reaching above 40ºC in central and Northern Brazil during mid-September, despite it being the spring season.
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.