Atacama Desert Blanketed by Snow
- Multiple storms in August 2026 blanketed large parts of Chile's Atacama Desert with snow, with NASA satellites capturing a snowpack that extended from the Andes to near the
- A cut-off low pressure system amplified by El Niño drove the rare event, which geophysicist René Garreaud of the Universidad de Chile described as precipitation that 'can only
- Mudslides and debris flows triggered by the heavy rainfall blocked roads and forced precautionary evacuations across the Antofagasta region, including parts of the city of
Multiple storms have turned large swathes of Chile's Atacama Desert — one of the driest places on Earth — white with snow, with NASA satellite imagery revealing the full, striking extent of the phenomenon. The snowfall, concentrated in August 2026, stretched from the Andes across the hyper-arid core of the desert to the Pacific coastline south of the port city of Antofagasta, some 130 kilometres to the north.
An unusually broad weather event
The storm that struck in the second half of August was described by NASA's Earth Observatory, which monitored developments using the Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 satellites and the MODIS instrument aboard the Terra satellite, as unusually large in scale. Snow in the Atacama is rare but not unprecedented: NASA has previously documented snowfall events there in 2011 and 2025.
The immediate meteorological trigger was a cut-off low — a pocket of low pressure severed from the jet stream — that pushed unusually far north into Chilean territory. In this case, the system developed in conjunction with an abnormally extensive low-pressure trough and was further fed by ample moisture drawn in from the coastal zone, driving precipitation from the shoreline across the desert and into the Andes.
El Niño identified as broader driver
René Garreaud, a geophysicist and atmospheric scientist at the Universidad de Chile, confirmed that the volumes of precipitation recorded in the region "can only rarely be observed." He attributed the underlying conditions to a strengthening El Niño event, which he said is responsible for heightened rainfall and snowfall in northern and central Chile. El Niño weakens the subtropical Pacific High — the pressure system that ordinarily keeps the Atacama bone dry — and simultaneously shifts the typical tracks of low-pressure systems closer to the equator, making incursions of the kind seen in August more likely.
Mudslides disrupt Antofagasta region
The heavy precipitation carried severe consequences for communities in the region. Landslides and debris flows blocked roads across parts of the Antofagasta region as water surged suddenly down drainage channels and ravines. Residential areas were evacuated as a precautionary measure and emergency shelters were opened. Chile's national disaster-management agency, Senapred, confirmed that at-risk areas of the coastal city of Tocopilla were among those cleared.
The episode underscores how El Niño-linked disruption to established atmospheric patterns can produce dramatic, if temporary, transformations even in the world's most forbidding desert landscapes.
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