World's driest desert floods as extreme weather conditions mount

The world’s driest desert is flooding and some of the planet’s wettest woodlands are burning. Welcome to summer in Chile.

Extreme weather

Rains high up in the Andes mountains have led to torrents of water pouring into the Atacama desert below, sweeping away houses and roads. Meanwhile in the south, blistering temperatures have fueled forest fires, leading the government to declare a state of catastrophe in some regions.

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The disasters are part of a pattern of increasingly extreme weather in the country that stretches for 4,270 kilometers (2,650 miles) along South America’s south-west coast. The capital, Santiago, hasn’t received its average annual rainfall in a decade, while temperatures in the city beat the previous record by a whole degree Celsius last month. It was the third time in three years the city has set a new record high.

“Chile needs to be thinking about how to adapt to climate change, as it has such an isolated climate that makes it more vulnerable to droughts,” said Park Williams, a hydroclimatologist at Columbia University. “For the last several decades, temperatures have risen and precipitation has declined in central Chile, making it more susceptible to wildfires.”

Damaged homes, at least 3 deaths

In the south, more than 600 forest fires are raging through 9500 hectares of land, an increase in burnt areas from the year before. Compounding the problem are dense plantations of pine and eucalyptus for the forestry industry.

In the north, three people have died due to the rains and 37,000 in the town of Calama were without tap water for four days. More than a hundred homes have major damage in the nearby tourist resort of San Pedro de Atacama.

Storms impacting copper mines

The storms have also affected state-owned copper miner Codelco and Freeport McMoran Inc, which operate mines near Calama. After returning from a trip to see the fire damage in the south, President Sebastian Pinera is now traveling north to see the floods.

Strong to moderate thunderstorms are expected to continue through Feb. 10, according to Chile’s weather service Meteochile.

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