While much of the media’s focus has been on the heat wave hitting the USA, little attention is being paid to the bitter cold gripping South America.
It’s another unusually cold winter striking the continent. Last year, hundreds froze to death. The same occurred in the winter of 2010.
Cold 7-day forecast for South America. Source: http://wxmaps.org/pix/temp8.html
The English-language I Love Chile news site has a report on the cold now gripping vast parts of South America. At least 14 people have died in Chile due to cold over the past few days. According to I Love Chile:
Overall, eight people have died due to cold weather in Santiago, in addition to six others who perished in other the Central and Southern regions of the country. The cold front has caused temperatures throughout Chile to drop well below freezing. Some parts of Santiago reported temperatures as low as -4 degrees Celsius, causing homeless residents throughout the capital to face the cold without proper accommodations.”
According to www.news.de here, the cold is also gripping Bolivia and Peru, where the mercury has dropped to -23°C.
The low temperatures will continue in the days ahead as cold is expected to grip much of South America for the next week, see chart above.
Last week in Argentina, serious frosts led to a declaration of an agricultural emergency and disaster, read here.
The extreme cold is not isolated to South America. In Tasmania night-time temperatures in the South and Liawenee posted the coldest June day in almost 30 years. “Temperatures in some areas fell to almost 10 degrees below average between June 20 and June 28. Fingal and Ross had their coldest June night in 15 years on June 27 with bone-chilling lows of -6.7C and -6.5C recorded respectively.” Hat-tip: http://globalfreeze.wordpress.com/.
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