The climate threat|Global challenges

Andes. Wikimedia Commons.  

 

Heat wave in South America in the middle of winter: "Extreme" 

 

Parts of South America are currently experiencing a severe heat wave in the middle of the continent's winter, The Guardian reports. 

 

In the Chilean Andes, temperatures of up to 39 degrees have been measured. This has led to snowmelt below 3,000 meters altitude, which bodes badly for residents in the valleys who depend on meltwater in the spring and summer.  

 

Climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, who maps extreme weather in the world, calls it "one of the most extreme (weather) events the world has ever seen". 

 

"This event rewrites all the climate books," he writes on X, formerly Twitter.  

 

Andes. Wikimedia Commons. 

 

Experts are concerned by the exceptional heat wave  

 

Experts are worried by the unusual South American heat wave, which is happening in the middle of the continent's winter.  

 

Heat waves are not uncommon in the area, but the current one is exceptional "given the area, the duration, the intensity and the fact that it is early August," climatologist Maximiliano Herrera told CNN.  

Chile's Climate Minister Maisa Rojas writes on X, formerly Twitter, that the weather is the result of two phenomena: climate change and El Niño. 

 

Raul Cordero, a climatologist at Groeningen University in the Netherlands, adds that that combination means "uncharted territory".