São Paulo Below Freezing; Potosí's Coldest June Night On Record; Rare Snow Settles In Chile’s Atacama; Hungary’s Cherry Crop Wrecked By Freeze; + Global Temperature Metric Is Meaningless

You can’t average boiling water, ice, and a furnace and call it meaningful — but climate policy does.

São Paulo Below Freezing

This week, the state of São Paulo, Brazil recorded some of their lowest temperatures in years — in some cases, breaking long-standing records.

The mountain town of Campos do Jordão dropped to 1.3C (34.3F). Chilly, but expected at altitude. What wasn’t expected was the sub-zero readings posted by heavily urbanized areas.

In São Paulo city, average temps hovered around 5C (41F), but across the city's southern districts, the mercury dipped to -0.7C (30.7F). It was the first time in over a decade that official readings in the capital dipped below freezing.

But the real outlier came from Corumbataí, a town 214 km inland, which registered a record-breaking -2.4C (27.7F) — Corumbataí has never posted a lower temperature in modern records (in the INMET archive dating from 1998).

Across southern Brazil, the numbers were even more extreme:

• Urupema (SC): -8C (17.6F), coldest in Brazil, with feels-like of-13C (8.6F)

• General Carneiro (PR): -7.8C (18F)

• São Joaquim (SC): -6C (21.2F), nearing its all-time June record

• Monte Verde (MG): -2.2C (28F)

• Serafina Corrêa (RS): -3.6C (25.5F)

• Lages (SC): -3.2C (26.2F)

Even urban areas weren’t spared. São Miguel Arcanjo (SP) hit 0C (32F), while Curitiba fell to -0.3C (30.5F).

Climatempo confirmed the wave brought an “abrupt and widespread temperature collapse” across much of Brazil.