SCIENCE · VERIFIED DEVELOPMENT
Rare Widespread Snow Blanket Covers Atacama Desert, Disrupting Observatories and Sparking Floods
WHY IT MATTERS
The event demonstrates how rare precipitation can abruptly halt critical astronomical research and expose vulnerable communities to flood risk, underscoring the need for resilient infrastructure and adaptive climate monitoring in arid regions.
What happened
In August 2026, back‑to‑back winter storms left the normally arid Atacama Desert in northern Chile blanketed in snow, a phenomenon captured by Landsat 8, Landsat 9, and Terra MODIS imagery. The snow spread from the Andes to near the Pacific coast, covering the Chajnantor plateau that hosts the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).
High winds and snowfall forced ALMA to suspend operations and enter a protective survival mode. The same storm produced heavy rainfall—up to 40 mm in Taltal—triggering mudflows and flash flooding that affected thousands of residents and caused major damage to hundreds of homes, according to SENAPRED.
Atmospheric scientists attribute the event to a large trough and El Niño‑related weakening of the subtropical Pacific high, which shifted the Southern Hemisphere storm track equatorward.
PRIMARY SOURCES
Rare, Widespread Snow in the Atacama Desert
NASA · NASA media usage guidelines; third-party material excluded