According to news accounts and several meteorologists, it was the heaviest and most extensive rainfall in the Atacama Desert region in nearly a century. Rain totals barely exceeded 50 millimeters (2 inches), but they came in one of the driest regions of the world. 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. The town of Quillagua saw its first rain in 23 years.
The rare rainfall in northern Chile was caused by a cold front that
moved across the Andes. 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. Some
meteorologists suggested that this fits with El Niño weather patterns.
The maps above show satellite-based estimates of rainfall totals and locations from March 25–27, 2015, as compiled by NASA. 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 rainfall totals are regional, remotely-sensed estimates, and localized rainfall amounts can be significantly higher when measured from the ground.
The data come from the Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG), a product of the new Global Precipitation Measurement mission that merges precipitation estimates from passive microwave and infrared sensors, as well as monthly surface precipitation gauge data to provide precipitation estimates between 60 degrees North and South latitude. The GPM satellite is the core of the rainfall observatory that includes measurements from 12 satellites from NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and five other national and international partners.
The maps above show satellite-based estimates of rainfall totals and locations from March 25–27, 2015, as compiled by NASA. 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 rainfall totals are regional, remotely-sensed estimates, and localized rainfall amounts can be significantly higher when measured from the ground.
The data come from the Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG), a product of the new Global Precipitation Measurement mission that merges precipitation estimates from passive microwave and infrared sensors, as well as monthly surface precipitation gauge data to provide precipitation estimates between 60 degrees North and South latitude. The GPM satellite is the core of the rainfall observatory that includes measurements from 12 satellites from NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and five other national and international partners.
Further Reading
- The Atlantic (2015, April 8) Devastating Floods Hit Northern Chile. Accessed April 10, 2015.
- BBC (2015, March 27) Flood torrents devastate Peru and Chile. Accessed April 10, 2015.
- International Business Times (2015, March 27) Floods in Chile and landslides in Peru after heaviest rain in 80 years. Accessed April 10, 2015.
- Jeff Masters’ WunderBlog, via Weather Underground (2015, April 3) A Rare Easter Typhoon for the Philippines; Chile Flood Toll: 107 Dead or Missing. Accessed April 10, 2015.
- NASA (2015) Precipitation Measurement Missions. Accessed April 10, 2015.
- NDTV (2015, April 6) Flood Kills 26 in Chile. Accessed April 10, 2015.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using IMERG data provided courtesy of the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) Science Team’s Precipitation Processing System (PPS). Caption by Mike Carlowicz.
- Instrument(s):
- GPM
