Drought in Amazon Rainforest makes water level in Manaus sink to just thirteen meters, the lowest since records began

Today on water catching fire level headlines, the Amazon river is nearly dry.

The water level at a major river port in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has hit its lowest point in at least 121 years, as a historic drought upends the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and damages the jungle ecosystem.

Rapidly drying tributaries to the mighty Amazon river have left boats stranded, cutting off food and water supplies to remote jungle villages, while high water temperatures are suspected of killing more than 100 endangered river dolphins.

The port in Manaus, the region’s most populous city located where the Negro river meets the Amazon river, recorded a water level of 13.59 meters (44.6ft) on Monday, according to its website. That is the lowest level since records began in 1902, passing a previous all-time low set in 2010.

Brazil’s science ministry blames the drought on this year’s onset of the climate phenomenon El Niño, which is driving extreme weather patterns globally. In a statement earlier this month, the ministry said it expected the drought will last until at least December, when El Niño’s effects are forecast to peak.

Considering it took less then 15 years for the previous record to be broken, we may start living in a reality where the most volumous river on earth just dries up every El Niño season. That is the power of Climate Change. At least the anthropologists are doing interesting archaeology in the riverbed, but that's hardly much in the way of consolation prizes.