Climate Chile
The very sophisticated geographical configuration of Chile justifies disparities in climate: the Cordillera enjoys a humid climate, the interior a dry climate, then descending towards Tierra del Fuego, we find a climate becoming subantarctic, characterized by the well-named roaring forties and howling fifties. To the north, the Atacama Desert is the driest place on Earth, with less than 1 millimetre of rainfall per year! A kingdom of wind, Patagonia owes its relief to its best ally, who can be your worst enemy at times: here, the wet cold is combined with torrential rain, while the strong swell is accompanied by the worst oceanic storms! Finally, Chile is suffering from one of the most alarming issues of our time. Between melting glaciers and overwhelming droughts, the country's ecological dramas are alarming signs of global warming.
Climate disparities
Located below the equator, Chile has seasons that are the reverse of ours: spring blossoms between September and December, summer bronzes between December and March, autumn turns red between April and June, and winter settles in from June to September. The many climatic influences that the country is subject to explain the great diversity of its climates spread over different latitudes. The ocean also plays a major role and moderates the various climatic influences throughout the country. The cold Humboldt Current moderates the tropical influence while the penetration of clouds on the territory is limited by the natural barrier constituted by the Cordillera of the Coast or by the island of Chiloé. In Chile, the further south you go, the lower the average temperature. The desert climate of the tropical regions, between Arica and Antofagasta, is characterized by a relative mildness which is explained by the maritime influence and a remarkable aridity. When one reaches the latitude of La Serena and the transverse valleys of the cordillera, the sunshine persists, but the temperatures become milder. The climate of the central region is reminiscent of the Mediterranean climate, except that it is influenced by the Andean relief and the cold waters of the Pacific. Here the winters are relatively rainy and the summers completely dry. The lower the latitude, the higher the average rainfall and the lower the average temperature. In the southernmost region of Magellan, the average annual temperature in Punta Arenas is 5.3°C. This hostile environment is characterized by heavy rainfall and very strong winds throughout the year.
Atacama, arid beauty
In northern Chile, the Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world. But what characterizes a desert? Contrary to popular belief, it's not the heat, but the lack of water: here, some men have never seen rain. The absence of humidity in the air is due to the presence of an anticyclone on the Pacific side and, on the eastern side, the peaks of the Andes obstruct any clouds formed over the Amazon. There are no animals or plants here, the landscape is purely mineral. Even NASA's Mars exploration robots have found no life! Sand and wind sculpt the peaks, cliffs and canyons, creating extraordinary lunar-like scenery... But beware! This sanctuary of beauty hides a fearsome climate: while the temperature can rise to 35°C during the day, it can fall below 0°C at night, and the thermal shock is so great that it shatters the rocks!
Patagonia, kingdom of the winds
"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 everything it has seen," confides Luis Sepuleva in his book Nouvelles du Sud. Nothing stands still for long on the immense land of Patagonia, as the wind pushes the scenery ever further towards the horizon! For here, on earth as in the sky, the wind is master of all things and responsible for the slightest relief of a landscape it has forged over time. The further south you venture, the more violent the winds become, and with good reason they've been dubbed the Roaring 40s and Howling 50s. These winds in the Southern Ocean are named after the southern parallels that delimit them. A famous sailor's 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 Antarctica's icy waters and the warm currents that surround the ice continent. This meteorological clash gives rise to a multitude of depressions, each time draining a larger swell: waves can reach up to 30 metres in height..
Climate change
Of course, Chile is not immune to the major current issue of climate change: because they are warming faster, the polar regions are the most affected. As the ice caps melt, Chile 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 set at such high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, particularly in the Bío-Bío and Araucania regions, with temperatures reaching 41.6°C. Also hit by drought, the country recently wiped a lake off its map: Lake Aculeo, near Santiago, is now cracked earth. Further south, the ice giants continue to crack their old bones: in February 2019, an 8.8-hectare iceberg broke away from the Grey glacier, and shortly afterwards, in March, another 6-hectare fracture occurred. These events are just a sample of what's happening in the rest of the country, which has 4% of the world's glaciers and 80% of those in South America. Glaciers are retreating, pouring large quantities of freshwater into the ocean like open faucets. The composition of the water changes, impacting the entire marine ecosystem. This is the case, for example, of the humpback whales that are beginning to desert the Chilean fjords: the increase in freshwater has altered the microscopic organisms they need to feed. In the Andes mountain range, snow cover is decreasing (in the space of a century, some peaks have lost 60% of their snow cover) and winters are becoming milder. What's more, the cold, rainy climate is giving way to microclimates more conducive to agriculture: Patagonian wine, born in the 2010s, is the southernmost in the world. In 2019, the 25th UN Climate Change Conference was officially scheduled to be held in Chile, which had pledged to host 25,000 people and move the ecological agenda forward. However, in the midst of a social crisis, the country finally decided not to organize the event a month before its official launch. Against a backdrop of crisis, for reasons of image or security, the Chilean authorities turned their backs on a major challenge. COP25 was finally held in Madrid. The Spanish capital took just 4 weeks to prepare for an event that usually takes 2 years.
In 2022, Chile won the World Travel Award for "Greenest Destination" for the third time in four years (as it did in 2019 and 2020). The promotion and widespread use of eco-responsible activities has a lot to do with this.
