A new cold front is due to reach Brazil's coffee belt on Tuesday bringing some rain to Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais states but will not trigger any frost risk, private meteorologists Somar said on Monday. Lows of 5 Celsius (41 Fahrenheit) and 9 Celsius (48 Fahrenheit) are expected on Thursday in south Minas and Parana respectively.
"A mass of polar air linked to the front will advance only as far as the south of the country without causing any sharp decline in temperature," Somar said in a daily report.
The center of the polar air mass will move off into the ocean while still between Uruguay and Brazil's most southerly state, Rio Grande do Sul. Somar added that another cold front will arrive at the start of next month and bring rain until June 5. "A polar air mass (linked to the front) will remain to the south of the coffee belt and not cause any intense cold," Somar said.
Last Friday was the coldest day of the year in Brazil's coffee belt with lows of 3 Celsius (38 Fahrenheit) in Pocos de Caldas, south Minas, 6 Celsius in Parana, and 7 Celsius in south-west Sao Paulo state.
Harvesting of the new crop is under way and if there were frost it would affect the 2008/09 crop. Coffee frosts have occurred as early as June 1 in 1979 and the main risk of a freeze is in June and July. Brazil's winter officially starts on June 21. The last severe Brazilian coffee freeze was in 1994, and there have been only three significant crop-damaging freezes in the past 23 years.
Crop conditions have generally been very favourable. The government has forecast the 2007/08 (July/June) crop at 32.1 million 60-kg bags, sharply down on the 42.5 million bags of 2006/07.