A sequence of winter storms swept throughout northern Chile in August 2026, bringing an uncommon masking of snow to components of the Atacama Desert. Snowfall on this famously dry area is just not unprecedented. Comparable occasions occurred in 2025 and 2011. Nevertheless, one of many August 2026 storms stood out for its outstanding attain, spreading from the Andes throughout the desert towards the Pacific coast.
The OLI (Operational Land Imager) aboard the NASA USGS Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 satellites documented the dramatic change in photographs taken on August 6 and August 14, earlier than and after a stretch of extreme climate, respectively.
The views present a detailed take a look at the Chajnantor plateau throughout the Altiplano-Puna volcanic advanced. This high-elevation space is residence to the Atacama Giant Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), one of the crucial highly effective radio telescopes on the planet. As heavy snow and robust winds moved by way of the realm, ALMA suspended operations and positioned its antennas right into a protecting survival mode.
Situations turned much more uncommon later within the month. A second storm unfold contemporary snow throughout a much wider a part of northern Chile. An August 19 image from the MODIS (Average Decision Imaging Spectroradiometer) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite tv for pc reveals snow reaching westward from the Andes, crossing the hyperarid coronary heart of the Atacama, and approaching the Pacific coast south of the Chilean port metropolis of Antofagasta. A number of different main astronomical observatories are positioned on this coastal area, and a few additionally suspended operations whereas the storm handed.
An Uncommon Atmospheric Setup
A lot of the winter precipitation that reaches this a part of Chile is related to cutoff lows, low-pressure methods that separate from the jet stream and might typically transfer into northern Chile. René Garreaud, an atmospheric scientist on the College of Chile, mentioned this sort of system was accountable for the notable snowfall in 2025.
A cutoff low was additionally behind the late August 2026 storm, however this occasion developed beneath extra uncommon circumstances. The system broke away from an exceptionally giant trough, an elongated area of comparatively low atmospheric stress, that prolonged throughout an enormous portion of the Southern Hemisphere from the southern tip of South America into the subtropics.
Mixed with plentiful moisture close to the coast, this disrupted climate sample generated precipitation throughout an exceptionally broad space. Rain and snow fell offshore, alongside the shoreline, by way of the middle of the Atacama Desert, and over the Andes. Garreaud mentioned precipitation totals reached ranges “not often seen within the in any other case extraordinarily arid area.”
Months of Rain in Simply Three Days
Not all the precipitation arrived as snow. Alongside components of Chile’s northern coast, it fell as heavy rain. In Taltal, almost 40 millimeters (1.6 inches) accrued over three days. In line with Garreaud, that quantity is roughly 10 occasions the town’s common annual rainfall.
“We see these sorts of occasions only some occasions, if any, per decade.”
The extraordinary precipitation had critical penalties. Mudflows and flash flooding struck components of northern Chile, inflicting widespread disruption and injury. The Nationwide Catastrophe Prevention and Response Service (SENAPRED) reported that hundreds of individuals have been affected and tons of of houses suffered main injury.
El Niño Units the Stage for a Wetter Winter
Garreaud pointed to the strengthening El Niño as an essential backdrop to the unusually moist winter unfolding throughout north-central Chile. The August storms weren’t the primary main occasions of the season. A major event in July additionally produced vital impacts in Chile’s Norte Chico area.
Throughout El Niño, the subtropical Pacific excessive, which ordinarily helps keep dry circumstances over the area, turns into weaker. On the identical time, a blocking excessive is extra more likely to develop over the South Pacific close to the southern finish of the continent. Collectively, these atmospheric adjustments shift the Southern Hemisphere storm observe nearer to the equator, making it simpler for highly effective climate methods to succeed in areas of Chile which are usually extraordinarily dry.
