Extensive areas of the Atacama Desert, located in northern Chile, recorded an atypical landscape last August. Large portions of the site, which is one of the driest on the planet, were covered in snow after two intense winter storms.

According to a communication from the United States space agency, NASA, one of the precipitations extended from the Andes mountains to areas close to the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

Satellite records showed the transformation of the landscape on the Chajnantor plateau, a region located in the Altiplano-Puna volcanic complex. The images, which document August 6th and 14th, were captured by Landsat 8 and 9 satellites.

This same location is home to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), considered one of the largest groupings of radio telescopes in the world.

Due to the combination of heavy snowfall and intense winds, the observatory had to temporarily suspend its activities and place its antennas in protection mode.

Expansion of the area affected by snow and rain

A second wave of storms, which occurred in the second half of August, brought snow to an even greater extent. A record taken by the Terra satellite, on August 19, revealed a vast white area that projected from the Andes to the west, crossing the desert until reaching the Pacific coast, south of Antofagasta.

The meteorological phenomenon was not restricted only to higher altitude regions. In several locations, precipitation manifested as rain. In the coastal city of Taltal, for example, around 40 millimeters of rain were measured in three days, a volume that exceeds the annual average for the location by ten times.

René Garreaud, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Chile, said that events of this scale are extremely rare in the region. In a note released by NASA, the expert explained that similar events only occur a few times every decade, or may not occur for years. This particularity highlights the exceptionality of the current phenomenon in Atacama.

The origin of these storms is linked to low pressure systems that break off from the jet stream and, occasionally, advance over northern Chile. In late August, the system that caused the phenomenon was unusually large, covering a vast area of ​​the Southern Hemisphere.

Moisture coming from the Pacific contributed to strengthening this system, favoring the formation of precipitation over an extraordinarily wide area, which encompassed the ocean, the coast, the interior of the Atacama and the Andes Mountains.

The excessive volume of rain resulted in flash floods and landslides in several parts of northern Chile. According to the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred), thousands of individuals were affected, and hundreds of properties suffered considerable damage.

Still according to Garreaud, the episode took place in the context of the strengthening of El Niño, which contributed to a wetter than usual winter in the central-northern region of Chile. This phenomenon changes atmospheric patterns over the Pacific and can create favorable conditions for storms to pass through areas that are normally very dry.

The occurrence of snow in Atacama is not unprecedented, with records of similar events in 2011 and 2025. However, what really caught attention this year, according to NASA, was the exceptional extent of the snow cover, which reached an unusual proximity to the Pacific coast.