Climate Argentina
Considering the country's geographical extent, it is easy to understand how it is possible to encounter almost any climate in the world. The stretching and absence of transverse mountain barriers facilitate climatic influences, both polar and tropical. The Cordillera enjoys a humid climate, the interior a dry climate, and the north an arid climate. Descending towards Tierra del Fuego, the climate becomes "subantarctic", characterized by the aptly named roaring forties and howling fifties. Fickle weather, indomitable wind, damp cold or stifling heat can combine with heavy rains, while heavy swells are accompanied by ocean storms. Finally, Argentina is far from being immune to the consequences of climate change: melting glaciers, heat waves and floods, the country is facing one of the most alarming challenges of our time.
Climate disparities
The dual polar and tropical influence leads to high temperatures in summer in northern Patagonia, while it is not unusual for it to freeze in winter in the Chaco, which enjoys a subtropical forest climate, close to Paraguay. In addition to the climatic contrasts, Argentina is characterized by its aridity, with less than 200 mm of water falling on one third of the country. This arid and desert climate is mainly found in the northwest of the country and in the steppes of the Great South. Thus, a dry Argentina is distinguished from a humid Argentina, with humidity and heat increasing from the south to the northeast. The humid part includes Mesopotamia (Northeast), Eastern Pampa and the northeastern Chaco, which receives annual rainfall close to 2,000 mm. The climate of the Northeast is identified with a subtropical regime (rainfall distributed throughout the year and high average temperatures). In Iguazú, for example, rain is likely to fall all year round, although the months between October and March are the wettest. Dry Argentina includes the Puna (Andean highlands), the eastern slopes of the Andes (except for the Tucumán region) and the western parts of La Pampa, Chaco and Patagonia. This ensemble delimits an arid diagonal, which can be traced on a map from the northwest (Puna) to the southeast of Patagonia. Note that in the northwest, along the mountain range, the Andean climate is cool and sunny. Finally, in the south, precipitations are mostly snowy and temperatures drop considerably near the cold and polar zone and are accompanied by unpredictable weather conditions (wind, snow, storms...). Finally, in the region of Mendoza, along the Chilean border, with a dry and temperate climate, conditions are optimal for the wine activity. The hot and dry climate of the region is counterbalanced by its proximity to the Andes Mountains, at an altitude of between 800 and 1,200 meters.
The hostile climate of Patagonia
"The Patagonian steppe invites humans to silence, for the powerful voice of the wind always tells of where it has come from and, laden with scents, tells of all it has seen", confides Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda in his book Dernières Nouvelles du Sud. Nothing stands still for long on the immense Patagonian land, neither sun, nor rain, nor snow, nor fog. By the time you close your eyes and open them again, the weather has changed and the wind has pushed the scenery further and further towards the horizon. For here, on earth as in the sky, the wind is master of all things. And while it may be invisible, it is nevertheless responsible for the slightest relief in a landscape it has forged over time: the trees, whose trunks bend towards the ground, the erosion and color of the rocks, the waves of the crystalline lagoons... The further south you venture, the more violent and frightening the winds become, and with good reason they have been christened the Roaring 40th and Howling 50th. Even if they have shaped maritime routes, these unpredictable winds are the most hostile on the planet. A famous maritime saying puts it rather well: "Under 40 degrees, there's no law, but under 50 degrees there's no God". Behind the saying lies a scientific reality: the temperature conflict between the icy waters of Antarctica and the warm currents that surround the ice continent. This encounter has the effect of a meteorological shock, generating a multitude of depressions, each time draining a larger swell: waves can reach up to 30 metres in height... In Patagonia, four seasons can occur in a single day: wind, snow, rain or sunshine, you can expect anything! In Rio Gallegos, temperatures can drop to -20°C, but in Ushuaia, less than 4,000 kilometers from the South Pole, the mercury rarely dips below -21°C. This inability to know the weather situation has given rise to a saying among the Patagonians: "Quien se apura en la Patagonia pierde el tiempo" (those who rush to Patagonia lose their time). Nature plays such a fundamental role in our daily movements and activities that when the weather's bad, it's better to wait it out and stay at home! Finally, the joy of traveling to the ends of the earth during the austral summer: while the sun melts into the horizon at around 5pm in January, night doesn't fall until 11pm in Ushuaia, and the sun reappears at around 4am. Nights are short, which is great if you like hiking.
Climate Change
Obviously, Argentina does not escape the great current topic of climate change, on the contrary: since they are warming faster, the regions of the poles are the most affected. While the ice caps are melting, Argentine Patagonia is experiencing the most serious and devastating effects of global warming, destabilizing its ecosystems and reducing its biodiversity. In 2019, this is the first time that heat records have been recorded at such high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere. Temperatures reached extreme values in the province of Santa Cruz: up to 38.2 °C in Perito Moreno and 35.8 °C in Rio Gallegos. Moreover, a rare and alarming phenomenon, this is the first time that the temperature has exceeded 30°C in Tierra del Fuego. Finally, in February 2020, the Argentine Antarctic recorded heat records at 18.3 °C, more precisely at the Esperanza Base: this is the warmest temperature ever recorded on the ice continent. The previous record was 17.5 °C in 2015. Glacier melting is accelerating in the region, especially since A68, the world's largest iceberg, broke off from Antarctica. This historic heat wave has been counterbalanced by temperatures below the seasonal norms: up to -25°C in San Carlos de Bariloche and in the ski resort of San Martín de los Andes in Patagonia, a record not equalled since 1963. Due to climate change, the glaciers are retreating and pouring large quantities of fresh water into the ocean like open taps. The composition of the water changes and impacts the entire marine ecosystem. Victim of this global warming, the Perito Moreno Glacier, reputed to be one of the only glaciers in Patagonia not to retreat, has however fractured in 2018 and now seems to be on borrowed time. The Upsala Glacier, one of the largest glaciers in the region, is the one that has retreated the most in the last 50 years: it is retreating nearly 300 meters and losing 20 meters of thickness per year. Of the 18,000 glaciers in the Andes, the melting has accelerated since 2000 in the region of Southern Patagonia: the ice giants, increasingly fragile, are losing an average of 15 meters of thickness. Although they have become thin, they are sensors that indicate the state of health of our planet and important reservoirs of strategic water for the future. Fortunately, scientific studies are multiplying and tourists are increasingly aware of the fate of glaciers, their retreat and global warming. Museums, such as the Glaciarium in the city of El Calafate, aim to educate the population and tourists about these issues. In the Andes Mountains, the snow is less and less important (in one century, some peaks have lost 60% of their snow) and the winter is increasingly mild. Climate change is also observed on the side of the pampas with heat peaks that hit heavily the fauna and flora: during the heat wave of 2008, more than one and a half million cows died. Recently, in 2019 and 2020, the drought in Argentina threatened wheat production considerably. On the Atlantic coast, floods are multiplying and rising waters are threatening seaside resorts. On the Mendoza side, agriculture was also threatened: the lack of snow was more and more felt with the arrival of spring. At the time of the thaw, water is supposed to irrigate the mountain slopes, fill the lakes and water the soil. Today the rivers and lakes are getting drier and drier and the grass is getting scarcer. At the beginning of 2020, the hail episode that occurred in the province of Córdoba led a team of researchers to propose a new category of hail: the diameter of the hailstones was between 19 and 24 centimeters! Called "gargantuan hail", this exceptional precipitation, still being studied, caused a lot of damage: perforated roofs, impacted windshields, broken windows... a great destructive potential! In addition, the warming leaves room for microclimates more conducive to agriculture: the wine of Patagonia, born in the 2010s, is the most southern in the world. A window on a future that does not look very bright, the Argentinean South is nevertheless proving to be a very good laboratory for scientists: the region gathers chain events that should be observed in other ecosystems in the coming decades. Several scientists have settled there to install probes. They monitor the evolution of ecosystems and try to anticipate global warming in other seas of the world. Finally, on the 50th World Earth Day, April 22, 2020, Pope Francis encouraged youth to take to the streets (post-confinement forced by the Covid-19 global pandemic) to save a "polluted and plundered" planet: the Argentine pontiff blamed his own country's leaders for a weak response.
