Brazil, despite occasional droughts that occur in some regions, is the country where rainfall is more frequent, with an average of 15,200 km³/year. Canada, for example, which has a larger territory than our country, has only a third of this average annual rainfall. This factor is mainly due to the existence of the Amazon, the largest tropical forest on the planet.
The relationship between the Amazon and rainfall in Brazil occurs because of the existence of the flying rivers, which basically consist of air humidity generated by the Amazon Forest and disseminated to various other parts of the country and the South American continent. It is even these rains that guarantee the survival of the forest itself and the water resources of a large part of the Brazilian hydrographic basins.
According to the Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Program in the Amazon (LBA) and the Flying Rivers Expedition*, a Amazon is a rainforest. According to the researchers, the forest emits organic vapors into the air through evapotranspiration, causing condensation and the formation of rain. The humid air that is also generated can precipitate and travel to other regions, including the Midwest of the country, the Southeast and also the South.
It is worth mentioning that the rate of water evaporation in the forest is higher than in other areas, especially those that have been deforested. By way of comparison, we can mention that evapotranspiration in the Amazon occurs at a rate of 3.6 to 4.2 mm per day, while in pasture areas this average increases to 1 or 2 mm per day in seasons rainy.
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Therefore, rainfall patterns in Brazil depend heavily on the Amazon Forest, as it emits most of the humid air that condenses as rain in other regions of the country. Some scholars estimate that the droughts that occurred in the Midwest and Southeast regions of Brazil in the year 2014 occurred, in large part, due to successive deforestation in the Amazon over the last few times. However, there are disagreements regarding this conclusion, since there is no definitive data to prove this thesis.
In any case, it is important to realize that, if the process of destruction of the Amazon forest continues to occur, there will be a great impact on rains in Brazil, generating climate change of all orders, such as rising temperatures and more frequent occurrence of droughts stringent. THE water issue in Brazil it depends, therefore, on the conservation of its vegetation.
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* Flying Rivers Project. Flying rivers, the Amazon and the Brazilian climate. Teacher's Notebook. São Paulo: Editora Horizonte, s/d. p.11.
By Me. Rodolfo Alves Pena
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PENA, Rodolfo F. Alves. "The Amazon and the Rains in Brazil"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/brasil/a-amazonia-as-chuvas-no-brasil.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
