The city of Rio de Janeiro recorded a new thermal sensation record in the year 2022 and this summer. At 4 pm this Tuesday (18), the monitoring station of Riocentro, in Barra da Tijuca, recorded 50.8°C. Until then, the highest thermal sensation had been recorded the previous day, with 49.7°C at the Santa Cruz viewpoint.
The thermal sensation is a meteorological calculation that determines with variables what the human body feels. This calculation takes into account air temperature and relative humidity.
According to Alerta Rio, which carries out this monitoring, “when the relative humidity is high, the rate of vaporization of sweat produced by the body is reduced, causing it to maintain more heat, than would happen in a drier dry air, for example”.
ClimaTempo meteorologist Maria Clara Sassaki explains that this measurement can vary very quickly in summer.
“The summer of La Niña, every now and then, has the formation of corridors of humidity, which make rainy days, lower temperatures, but when the weather clears, the population ends up feeling the contrast, which are the very high temperatures, feeling of very different heat from one week to the next, there are more than ten degrees of difference in temperature”, he explains.
“For now, we have the most critical situation there in the southern region of Brazil, which are the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paraná, which have been experiencing a heat wave for some time. Now that the weather has opened up in the Southeast, we also have capital cities, such as Rio de Janeiro, registering very high values”, she adds.
According to ClimaTempo, the city of Rio also recorded the highest temperature for the year 2022, with 38.2°C. The mark was measured at the Vila Militar meteorological station, in the west of the city. Until then, the previous record had been registered yesterday, with 36.2°C.
In 2021, the highest temperature was 40.2°C, on January 30, measured at the Vila Militar station.
See the ranking of the greatest thermal sensations of recent years in the city of Rio
- 55.4 ° C – 25/02/2020 – Santa Cruz
- 55.0°C – 12/21/2014 – Guaratiba
- 54.9°C – 02/05/2015 – Guaratiba
- 54.8 ° C – 11/01/2020 – Santa Cruz
- 53.5 ° C – 25/02/2019 – Santa Cruz
*with information from Tiago Tortella, from CNN
Reference: CNN Brasil
