Paraguay River is at its lowest point in decades
Paraguay River is at its lowest point in decades. Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features the Paraguay River, which has dropped to its lowest level in half a century.
According to experts, millions of dollars have already been lost due to delayed commerce, and shipping into the port may be completely stopped if water levels continue to drop.
Based on unusually high temperatures in the tropical Atlantic ocean, Yang Chen of UC Irvine predicted dry weather in the southeastern Amazon.
The unusually hot water temperatures are part of what is called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. The warmer water tends to shift weather patterns and push a key rain belt in the tropics northward.
“Farther south, in Paraguay, Uruguay, and Northern Argentina, you get into an extratropical region where the sensitivity of drought is quite different,” explained Chen. “In extratropical South America, low sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific are more closely associated with droughts.” Paraguay River is at its lowest point in decades
The image was captured on October 7, 2020 by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. Spanish conquistadores arrived in 1524, and in 1537 established the city of Asunción, the first capital of the Governorate of the Río de la Plata. During the 17th century, Paraguay was the center of Jesuit missions, where the native Guaraní people were converted to Christianity and introduced European culture.[13] After the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish territories in 1767, Paraguay increasingly became a peripheral colony, with few urban centers and settlers.
Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer
