This great country of Brazil presents considerable diversity of climate, as already observed. The forest covered Amazon Basin is hot, with slight variation throughout the year, and with heavy rainfalls; but while the average temperature is over 80°, ranging from 65° to 95°, some locations are decidedly preferable to others. The regular rainy season is from November to March, a second of less degree from August to October; also the rainy season is said to last nine months. On the upper Amazon there is a short dry season in January and February. There is a flood time November, December, and higher water from March to June. The average rainfall is about 78 inches, the rise of the river 45 feet. There are east winds, warm and moisture laden, the deflected trades, and colder winds from the west and southwest. The coast region as far south as Santos is generally warm and humid (except for a stretch at the northeast), with a wet and dry season, though it rains also in the latter, except on the arid northeast coast. A variation occurs in Pernambuco where it rains from March to August, the dry and cooler season in Rio. Here on the edge of the tropics the annual temperature is 5° lower than on the Amazon. At Santos rainfall is heavy and the place is hot, but farther south it is cooler with a wider range of temperature and a more even distribution of rain. In Rio Grande do Sul the mercury ranges from 20° to 80°. Cold southwest storms from the Argentine pampa, occasionally as far as Rio, create discomfort for two or three days at a time. The highest temperature in Rio is 98.7°.