Amid drought in Brazil, wildfires rage, Amazon level falls to record low

Brazil is enduring its worst drought since nationwide measurements began over seven decades ago, with 59% of the country under stress an area roughly half the size of the U.S.

Major Amazon basin rivers are registering historic lows, and uncontrolled manmade wildfires have ravaged protected areas and spread smoke over a vast expanse, plummeting air quality.

This is the first time that a drought has covered all the way from the North to the country's Southeast, Ana Paula Cunha, a researcher at the National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters, said in a statement Thursday. It is the most intense and widespread drought in history.

Smoke on Monday afternoon caused Sao Paulo, a metropolitan area of 21 million people, to breathe the second most polluted air in the world after Lahore, Pakistan, according to data gathered by IQAir, a Swiss air technology company.

About 1,100 kilometers (683 miles) to the north, a wildfire is sweeping through Chapada dos Veadeiros .