Unseasonably hot temperatures have continued in Brazil after a Taylor Swift fan died at a concert in Rio de Janeiro.
The death of 23-year-old Ana Clara Benevides Machado occurred Friday after the fan complained of feeling unwell at the outdoor concert. She was brought to paramedics then transported to a nearby hospital where she died of cardiorespiratory arrest.
The deadly heat prompted Swift to postpone her second show in Rio Saturday evening. Locals have recently taken to referring to the city as “Inferno de Janeiro,” a play on the Portuguese word for “Hell,” as temperatures again soared to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit with a heat index as high as 137 degrees Fahrenheit.
The El Niño climate pattern and an offshore high pressure system have combined to create warm weather throughout much of the continent, where summer is still more than four weeks away. El Niño typically brings hot temperatures, which have been intensified by the weather system carrying warm moist air and clearing away cloud cover.
Humid conditions have made things particularly oppressive as saturated air prevents sweat from evaporating, undermining the human body’s natural ability to cool itself.
Fans at Swift’s Friday show had complained about venue policy that prevented them from bringing water, leading to the concert’s organizer to announce water would be provided for free on Saturday.
The hot weekend conditions extended to Paraguay and other neighboring countries Saturday, with cities in Peru and Bolivia reporting record November temperatures. Elsewhere in Brazil, wildfires ravaged the tropical Pantanal wetlands.
The warm weather continues a period of high temperatures throughout the continent that drove fires in Argentina last month. In August and September, the continent experienced a rare winter heat wave.
Scientists say climate change is increasing the intensity and duration of periods of extreme heat as well as other severe weather events. According to expert Eliot Jacobson, Saturday was the first day in recorded human history that the global surface temperature average exceeded two degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 baseline.