By Miguel Lo Bianco
BUENOS AIRES, March 3 (Reuters) – Argentina is being hit by a scorching heat wave at the end of the southern summer, which sent temperatures soaring to record highs for March and led to serious problems such as power cuts or a reduced harvest.
Some cities recorded temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius, with 9 de Julio and Ezeiza breaking records for the month. Buenos Aires reached 38 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous mark set in 1952.
“You can’t walk, there’s a lot of humidity here and it’s heavy, bad,” said neighbor Gabriel Suárez.
Large parts of Argentina were without power after suffering outages in the national interconnected system due to a fire on Wednesday, officials said, as a heat wave increases demand for electricity.
Residents and tourists in Buenos Aires tried to shelter from the sun and drink plenty of water. Many stayed indoors and sought ways to stay cool.
“Well, you have to take about three showers a day, drink lots of water, avoid alcohol, unfortunately,” said Ande Wanderer, an American tourist visiting Argentina wearing a shirt to shield her head from the sun.
“I’m going with this because since I’m a redhead I have to cover up because otherwise I’m going to come out with skin cancer later,” she added.
Argentina has been hit by a drought since last year, which has affected its main crops of soybeans, corn and wheat. High temperatures and heat waves exacerbated the impact on crops. (Reporting by Miguel Lo Bianco. Translated into Spanish by Lucila Sigal, editing by Nicolás Misculin)