Smoke from fires in the Amazon, Cerrado and Pantanal reaches the South and Southeast of Brazil

Smoke from the forest fires in Amazon, Pantanal and Cerrado reached the South and Southern regions of the country at the end of Winter season in subequatorial Brazil. On September 14th, residents from São Francisco de Assis, in Rio Grande do Sul state, collected dark water from the rains that fell over the region. Experts heard by the press said that the phenomena could be a result from the Pantanal fires. The state of Santa Catarina also saw the occurrence of dark rain.

On September 18th, satellite images from Inpe showed that clouds of smoke and soot from forest fires in the Center-west of the country arrived in São Paulo state. On the same day, an airplane in which president Bolsonaro and his entourage were travelling had to make a forced lash out when trying to land at Sinop airport in Mato Grosso state due to lack of visibility caused by smoke from forest fires in the region. The management for the airport confirmed that there was smoke at the time of the landing. Right after the episode, in a speech to an audience of local representatives of the agribusiness sector, president Bolsonaro once again complained about the critics of Brazilian environmental policies and insinuated vested economic interests against the country.

A day later, on the 19th, new satellite images from Inpe showed that smoke from the forest fires had spread throughout more than 4,000 km, affecting at least five neighbouring countries - Peru, Bolivia, Paraguai, Argentina and Uruguay.