Weather
Chile’s Atacama desert is considered the 2nd driest place on Earth after Antarctica. It’s been written that in some locales in the Atacama, it’s never rained nor snowed.
This past weekend, the Atacama got snow and quite a bit of snow considering this region averages less than one inch of precipitation per year. Some places got over 80cms (31 inches)
Residents of San Pedro de Atacama say this weekend’s snow was the heaviest snow they’ve received in over 30 years. San Pedro de Atacama is a desert city that lies 750 miles north of Chile’s Capital, Santiago.
Local officials fear flooding in local rivers may be the result of the weekend snowstorm.
The national tourism office said that the road to San Pedro was temporarily blocked due to the recent snowfall.
In the end of this post the BBC reporter mentions the cold could be felt in Argentina as well. It was damn cold in Bariloche, Argentina which was great for the snow:
Bariloche, Argentina Backcountry Report & Photo Tour | Alaskita, Sub-Zero Temps, & Avy Risk
Atacama Desert Information:
The Atacama Desert (Spanish: Desierto de Atacama) is a plateau in South America, covering a 1,000-kilometre (600 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes mountains. It is the driest hot desert in the world.[1][2][3][4] The Atacama occupies 105,000 square kilometres (41,000 sq mi)[5] composed mostly of salt lakes (salares), sand, and felsic lava flows towards the Andes. – wikipedia
Driest Place on Earth:
The Atacama Desert is commonly known as the driest place in the world, especially the surroundings of the abandoned Yungay town[9] (in Antofagasta Region, Chile).[10] The average rainfall is about 15 millimetres (0.59 in) per year,[11] although some locations, such as Arica and Iquique receive as little as 1 millimetre (0.04 in) to 3 millimetres (0.12 in) in a year.[12] Moreover, some weather stations in the Atacama have never received rain. Periods of up to four years have been registered with no rainfall in the central sector, delimited by the cities of Antofagasta, Calama and Copiapó, in Chile.[1] Evidence suggests that the Atacama may not have had any significant rainfall from 1570 to 1971. – wikipedia
Must be so confusing when snow just never happens in your town, then boom, big snow.