The rainfall totals are regional, remotely-sensed estimates, and localized rainfall amounts can be significantly higher when measured from the ground. On the top map, note how the rainfall in northern Chile is almost average compared to the events north and east in the Amazon basin. The maps above show satellite-based estimates of rainfall totals and locations from March 25–27, 2015, as compiled by NASA. Some meteorologists suggested that this fits with El Niño weather patterns. Normally such a storm would have brought snow to the mountains, but air and sea surface temperatures in the region have been several degrees above normal-turning the snow into rain. The rare rainfall in northern Chile was caused by a cold front that moved across the Andes. The most extensive damage appeared to be in the towns of Chañaral and Copiapó. At least 2,000 homes were swept away, and 6,000 more were severely damaged by thick mud, boulders, and debris. At least 26 people were killed by the floods, and 120 were still missing two weeks afterward. Parched soil and sediment turned to thick mud that flowed in a torrent. The town of Quillagua saw its first rain in 23 years. The town of Antofagasta received 24 millimeters (an inch) of rain on March 25-26 with a yearly average of 1.7 millimeters, that was about 14 years worth of rain in a day. Rain totals barely exceeded 50 millimeters (2 inches), but they came in one of the driest regions of the world. But in a desert region that sees miniscule amounts of rainfall in any year, the heavy rains were disastrous.Īccording to news accounts and several meteorologists, it was the heaviest and most extensive rainfall in the Atacama Desert region in nearly a century. ![]() ![]() By the standards of most of the world, the rainfall totals were not extraordinary. In late March 2015, flash floods and mudslides devastated northern Chile’s Antofagasta, Atacama, and Coquimbo regions.
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