Five cities in southern Brazil suspended classes on Thursday due to heat waves.
Rio Grande is one of five cities – all of which are located in Rio Grande Do in the south, and he says its schools are not able to handle extremely high calories. Courses are expected to resume on Monday.
The National Meteorological Academy issued a serious weather warning to Rio Grande Do Sul and four other Brazilian countries. Temperatures in affected areas are as high as 5 degrees Celsius (9 F) above the monthly average.
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Last year’s extreme weather events affected at least 1.17 million children in Brazil, mainly involving floods and droughts, according to a UNESCO report in January. Most people in Rio Grande Do Sul, over 740,000 courses were missed in the flood that destroyed the state in May 2024.
Daniel Cara, an educational policy researcher at the University of St. Paul, said the school had to close during the dry season due to the danger of wildfires or lack of water. Now, school closures due to extreme heat are becoming increasingly common, he said.
“It will be the new normal,” he said in a telephone interview. “Climate issues always put pressure on the school calendar. Now, the new factor is that heat waves and lack of air conditioning will make class cancellations happening frequently.”
Brazilians endured heat waves this summer, and the temperature was hot. In February, Rio de Janeiro recorded its hottest day in at least a decade, with temperatures reaching 44 degrees Celsius (111 F).
