Brazil rations water in 140 cities amid worst drought in decades

January was the hottest month on record in parts of the country, including in Sao Paulo. The heat, plus a severe drought, has raised concerns over growing water shortages and crop damage. According to Brazil’s national meteorological institute INMET, Sao Paulo’s average maximum daily temperature so far this year was 31.9 degrees Celsius (89.4 degrees Fahrenheit), a degree hotter than the previous January record and surpassing February 1984 as the city’s hottest month ever.

According to the state meteorological agency in Ceara state, the northeast of the country is also experiencing its worst drought in at least 50 years. Hundreds of thousands of cattle have died from heat exhaustion, and farmers are getting desperate. “I have never seen a drought like this,” Ulisses de Sousa Ferraz, an 85-year-old farmer in Pernambuco state, told Reuters, adding that he has lost 50 cows. “Everything has dried up.”

I asked this Rush Limbaugh radio listener and a great admirer of the combined genius of Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann, what he thought about the record extremes in Brazil for both heat and drought:

There’s plenty of food in boxes at Walmart! Heehaw! Heehaw! Heehaw!