Waves of unseasonably cold air has been pressing north from Antarctica up through South America in recent days. This has resulted in record heavy snowfall and snow in rare places as well as record cold.
The Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina regions of Brazil have endured harsh frosts. According to an article by Electroverse, mountain settlements in Santa Catarina observed night lows of -10C (14F).
The rural community of Bom Jardim da Serra dropped to -10C (14F) which is said to be a tie of their all-time record low previously set back in August 2, 1991. The larger town of São Joaquim fell to -8.8C (16F).
Urupema woke to hard frost (see image below) and a low of -8.1C.
The Andes have been seeing big snowfalls during winter 2020 so far. Unfortunately skiers are unable to enjoy this bumper snowfall due to COVID-19.
Corralco ski area in Chile has already picked up 13ft which is considered the most for early winter in decades.
The city of Mendoza, Las Leñas in Argentina has collected 5ft of snow and most for so early in the season.
In Río Negro, southern Argentina, the thermometer dropped to a record -23C.
Snow falls down to 4000m in Ecuador
A tweet from climate historian, Maximiliano Herrera said ‘Unusual snowfalls were reported in Ecuador at altitudes as low as 4000m (possibly even little lower). in the Pilahuin departament, this was said to be the first snowfall since 1998. Usually snow near the equator line rarely falls below 4500m nowadays’.
Widespread Major Cold & Heavy Mountain Snows again next week?
GFS says yes!
Snow through next 7-days
The reason for these quite frequent waves of Antarctic cold and snow up into South America is courtesy of a persistent -AAO since mid-June.
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