After reeling from three intense heat waves, Mexico and Central America will experience the highest recorded temperatures for the next few weeks. Mexico City residents are used to more temperate temperatures, so many homes and businesses lack air conditioning. The situation of our southern neighbors is quite grim.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico, reeling from a heat wave that has already broken records, caused power outages and killed people and animals, could see "unprecedented" temperatures over the next two weeks, the country's largest university warned on Wednesday.
The extreme heat, fueled partly by the most recent El Nino weather phenomenon, will arrive with 70% of Mexico in drought and a third in severe drought, according to data from the national water commission.
"In the next 10 to 15 days, the country will experience the highest temperatures ever recorded," researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) said in a statement.
Temperatures in the capital could reach a record 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next two weeks, said Jorge Zavala, director of UNAM's Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate Change.
Most of the metropolitan area's 21 million residents - accustomed to more temperate weather - lack air conditioning. Earlier this month, the capital was one of at least ten cities in Mexico that registered their hottest day on record.
Stage view.
Crowd view.
Extreme heat in Mexico has killed dozens of people, according to the Health Ministry, with temperatures forecasted to rise further.
Meteorologists say a weather phenomenon known as a "heat dome" has trapped hot air over the southern Gulf of Mexico and northern Central America, causing temperatures to soar to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas.
Between May 12 and May 21, authorities said 22 people died from heat-related causes, adding to a total of 48 deaths since March 17.
In comparison, during the same period in 2022 and 2023, heat waves claimed the lives of two and three people, respectively.
The ongoing third heat wave in Mexico is part of five predicted from March to July.
The mass mortality event of Howler Monkeys dying from extreme heat is not the only wildlife, livestock, or human suffering and dying by any stretch of the imagination. Excelsior is the source for the above touching image of a funeral with food gifts for the lost Howlers' afterlife.
First it was parrots, parrots and owls, who fell dead over the weekend from heat stroke and dehydration in Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí, now inhabitants of eastern Tabasco and northwestern Chiapas, raised the alarm at the lifeless appearance of around 30 howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata). species "In Danger of Extinction", according to the Official Mexican Standard 059.
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"It is highly recommended that if you find dead monkeys you notify the authorities or us, DO NOT HANDLE THEM. If you see weak monkeys that are apparently suffering from heat or dehydration, please just try to carry a bucket of water up to the trees, with a rope so they can drink water," he said.
COBIUS called on Profepa, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), and state governments to consider this situation as a "serious emergency," since in Tabasco and Chiapas, temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius are recorded with a thermal sensation of up to 57 degrees, which is aggravated by the presence of forest fires.
Accuweather:
The imminent impact on the health of Mexicans continues to increase as a result of the wildfires roaring out of control in and around the country's capital over the past four days.
The Environmental Commission of the Megalopolis reported that the level of Extraordinary Atmospheric Environmental Contingency is being maintained due to dangerously high levels of ash particles and ozone in the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico.
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The outlook is bleak given that a high pressure system is preventing the dispersion of pollutants, and high temperatures are prolonging the drought that has affected the country in recent months.
So far, about 600 people were evacuated from the rural area of Pinar de la Venta in Jalisco, Mexico, about 340 miles west of Mexico City, according to a local fire department. However, large metropolitan areas are more difficult to evacuate due to a greater population density.
As Roberto Muñoz, an independent consultant on environmental issues and society, said in an interview with CNN en Español, officials in the Mexican capital do not have a plan of response for wildfires, which is a situation that complicates evacuations in great metropolitan areas due to greater population.
For further reading - See Robpos’s diary on water shortages in Bogata and Mexico City.
The most populated city in North America is experiencing a dire water crisis caused by El Nino, decayed infrastructure, and climate change. That doesn’t stop a Texas Republican from demanding the Biden Administration cut all funding to Mexico until they provide the “United States with the level of water it agreed to as part of a 1944 treaty”.
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico’s drought, heatwave and water shortages have gotten so bad that even police blocked traffic in protest Wednesday.
In recent months, residents of some Mexico City neighborhoods have regularly taken to forming human chains to block boulevards to demand water. In April, complaints about contaminated water sparked a weeks-long crisis in one upscale neighborhood.
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The officers stood blocking six lanes of traffic, saying their barracks hadn’t had water for a week, and that the bathrooms were unusable.
“We don't have water in the bathrooms,” said one female officer who would not give her name for fear of reprisals, adding that conditions in the barracks were intolerable. “They make us sleep on the floor,” she said.
Not all police, though.
Republican Demands Water From Mexico
Speaking in the House on Wednesday, Representative Monica De La Cruz said Secretary of State Antony Blinken needs to do more to get Mexico to honor the agreement, commenting: "We need to use every tool that we have available to force Mexico to abide by the treaty. We want our water. We demand our water."
Under the 1944 Mexico-United States Water Treaty, formally known as the "Treaty on the Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande," Mexico is obliged to provide the U.S. with an average of 350,000 acre-feet of water per year over a five-year period.
The United States will temporarily escape the worst heat dome temperatures, but experience increased violent weather, as seen in Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Texas.
The moderate alert was extended to Georgia, Oklahoma, New Mexico, North Carolina, and South Carolina over the three-day period. However, during this time, it was also withdrawn from ten states, primarily in the north-east. These were Ohio, Michigan, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.