In August 2026, back-to-back winter storms left parts of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile covered in a rare blanket of snow. The typically arid region has seen snowfall before, notably in 2025 and before that in 2011. But one of the 2026 events was unusually widespread, stretching from the Andes to near the Pacific coast.
2026 年 8 月，连续的冬季风暴使智利北部阿塔卡马沙漠的部分地区覆盖着罕见的积雪。这个典型的干旱地区以前也曾出现过降雪，特别是在 2025 年和之前的 2011 年。但 2026 年的一场降雪范围异常广泛，从安第斯山脉一直延伸到太平洋沿岸附近。
The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the NASA-USGS Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 satellites captured these images (above) on August 6 and August 14, before and after a period of severe weather, respectively. They show a detailed view of the Chajnantor plateau within the Altiplano-Puna volcanic complex , home to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)—one of the planet’s most powerful radio telescopes. As snow and high winds set in, ALMA suspended operations , moving its antennas into a protective survival mode.
NASA-USGS Landsat 8 和 Landsat 9 卫星上的 OLI（操作陆地成像仪）分别于 8 月 6 日和 8 月 14 日（即恶劣天气之前和之后）拍摄了这些图像（上图）。它们展示了高原-普纳火山群内查南托高原的详细视图，这里是阿塔卡马大型毫米/亚毫米阵列 (ALMA) 的所在地，这是地球上最强大的射电望远镜之一。随着降雪和大风袭来，ALMA 暂停了运营，将天线转入保护性生存模式。
Another storm in the second half of the month blanketed an even wider area with fresh snowfall. This image, captured by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite on August 19, shows snow extending westward from the Andes, across the desert’s hyper-arid core, and close to the Pacific coast south of the Chilean port city of Antofagasta. This coastal area is home to several other major astronomical observatories, some of which also suspended operations during the event.
本月下半月的另一场暴风雨覆盖了更广泛的地区，新降雪覆盖了更广泛的地区。这张图像由美国宇航局 Terra 卫星上的 MODIS（中分辨率成像光谱仪）于 8 月 19 日拍摄，显示积雪从安第斯山脉向西延伸，穿过沙漠的极度干旱核心，并靠近智利港口城市安托法加斯塔以南的太平洋海岸。这个沿海地区是其他几个主要天文台的所在地，其中一些也在活动期间暂停了运营。
Most of the region’s winter precipitation comes from cutoff lows —low-pressure systems that become cut off from the jet stream and can occasionally reach northern Chile. That’s what happened in 2025, said René Garreaud, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Chile. The late-August 2026 storm also came from a cutoff low, but this one spun off from an unusually large trough —an elongated area of relatively low atmospheric pressure—that spanned an enormous stretch of the hemisphere, from the tip of South America up into the subtropics.
该地区的大部分冬季降水来自截止低压，即与急流隔绝的低压系统，偶尔会到达智利北部。智利大学大气科学家 René Garreaud 表示，这就是 2025 年发生的事情。 2026 年 8 月下旬的风暴也来自一个截止低点，但这次风暴是从一个异常大的槽（大气压相对较低的细长区域）旋转而来，横跨半球的一大片区域，从南美洲的尖端一直延伸到亚热带。
The atmospheric disruption, combined with ample coastal moisture, produced precipitation that spanned an unusually wide swath of the region—offshore, along the coast, across the core of the Atacama, and over the Andes. Totals reached a magnitude “rarely seen in the otherwise extremely arid region,” Garreaud said.
大气的破坏，加上充足的沿海湿气，产生了降水，降水覆盖了该地区异常广泛的地区——近海、沿海、穿过阿塔卡马山脉的核心以及安第斯山脉。加罗德说，总量达到了“在极其干旱的地区罕见”的程度。
In some areas it fell as rain, not snow. Taltal, for instance, on Chile’s northern coast, accumulated nearly 40 millimeters (1.6 inches) of rain in three days—about 10 times its annual mean, Garreaud said. “We see these kinds of events only a few times, if any, per decade.”
在一些地区，降下的是雨，而不是雪。加洛德说，以智利北部海岸的塔尔塔尔为例，三天内降雨量接近 40 毫米（1.6 英寸），约为年平均降雨量的 10 倍。 “我们每十年只看到几次此类事件（如果有的话）。”
The abundant precipitation spurred destructive mudflows and flash flooding in parts of northern Chile. The National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (SENAPRED) reported thousands were affected and hundreds of homes had major damage.
丰富的降水引发了智利北部部分地区的破坏性泥石流和山洪爆发。国家灾害预防和响应服务局 (SENAPRED) 报告称，数千人受到影响，数百所房屋遭受严重损坏。
Garreaud noted that the strengthening El Niño is the backdrop for the anomalously wet winter in north-central Chile. In addition to the August storms, a major event in July brought significant impacts to the country’s Norte Chico region. During El Niño, the subtropical Pacific high—which normally keeps the region dry—weakens, while a blocking high tends to form in the South Pacific near the tip of the continent. Together, these shifts push the Southern Hemisphere storm track equatorward.
加罗指出，厄尔尼诺现象的加强是智利中北部冬季异常潮湿的背景。除了八月的风暴之外，七月的一次重大事件也给该国的北奇科地区带来了重大影响。在厄尔尼诺现象期间，通常使该地区保持干燥的副热带太平洋高压减弱，而靠近大陆尖端的南太平洋往往会形成阻塞高压。这些变化共同推动南半球风暴路径向赤道移动。
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview . Story by Kathryn Hansen.
NASA 地球观测站图像，由 Lauren Dauphin 拍摄，使用来自美国地质调查局的 Landsat 数据以及来自 NASA EOSDIS LANCE 和 GIBS/Worldview 的 MODIS 数据。凯瑟琳·汉森的故事。