For a second consecutive day on Friday, the mercury hit 43 degrees Celsius (more than 109 degrees Fahrenheit), the third hottest temperature recorded on this date in nearly a hundred years of record-keeping, according to the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET).
The blistering temperature just missed surpassing 2012`s record of 43.2 degrees, prompting desperate residents to escape to the region`s famed beaches.
"The (southern) summer has not arrived, and we already have days with 41, 42 degrees -- well warmer than other years," 32-year-old Wellington Perreira dos Santos told AFP on Friday, as he cooled down at Ipanema Beach, which was far more crowded than usual for a weekday.
Near-record heat in sweltering Rio de Janeiro
17 October 2015
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The calendar says it`s still spring in Rio de Janeiro, but the coastal Brazilian city is suffering through one of the most severe bouts of hot weather of the past century.
