Foz do Iguaçu
- Filed under: Uncategorized
- Date: May 22,2008
The city has a population of 309,000 inhabitants, and the Triplice Fronteira (Tri Frontier) zone (Ciudad del Este, Hernandarias, Puerto Iguazú and rural areas inside the municipality areas) has a total of 820,000. The city is very heterogeneous. There are many communities of immigrants there, mostly Arabs, Chinese, Germans, Italians, Lebanese, Paraguayans, Argentines, Palestinians, French, Swedes, Portuguese and Ukrainians.
The city has the second largest Chinese colony of immigrants in Brazil (approx. 55,000, second only to São Paulo), and the third largest islamic colony of immigrants (approx. 80,000, behind São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro).
The city is predominantly Roman Catholic, Protestant and Spiritist, but a relative large minority of Muslims and Buddhists are present in the city as well. The city itself has a large Muslim mosque (largest outside the Middle East) and a Buddhist temple (the largest in Brazil).
Fenartec is an annual event held in the city’s convention centre commemorating the city’s multicultural diversity, usually in May.
The climate of Foz do Iguaçu is sub-tropical, with two distinctive seasons; one humid and hot in the summer and another, dry and cool, in the winter. The city’s annual average temperature is 23.8°C (74.8°F), but can be as high as 47°C (117°F) in the summer (highest) or as low as -5°C (23°F) in the winter (lowest). The average in the summer is 26.5°C (79.7°F)and in the winter 15.4°C (59.6°F).
The climate of the city is generally hot or warm throughout the year, due to the relatively low altitude (standing only 173 m, 567 ft, above sea level).
Generally, the city is sunny during the year, but rain is fairly common during the spring and in the summer. The weather of the city, however, changes very constantly, because the region where the city stands is the zone where frequently three fronts meet. As consequence, it is not uncommon to see temperatures as high as 35°C (95°F) and in the summer as low as 8°C (46°F) in the city, and commonly, thunderstorms.