For Paraguay, the weather pattern from the past 10 months has been highly variable, especially precipitation. Periods of intense rainfall (flooding and runoff) mixed with periods, sometimes 6-8 weeks, of drought conditions. Trees are stressed by this variability that predispose them to pests, disease and fires due to lightning or burning of logging piles or campfires. Drought punctuated by intense rain events leads to runoff and erosion and is not as effective in averting fire risks.
For the locations below, about 25mm of rain per week (or more) was expected since late May; but this was replaced by drought followed by spikes in rainfall. Drought coupled with higher temperatures created an ideal environment for fires with dry conditions in January and February setting the stage for large-scale forest fires.