🇨🇱Chile

Chile extends from 17°30′S to 56°00′S along the Pacific edge of South America, a uniquely elongated country stretching approximately 4,300 km north to south yet averaging only 175 km wide, walled to the east by the Andes and cooled offshore by the Humboldt Current. This extreme geography produces an extraordinary climate gradient: hyperarid hot desert BWh in the north (Arica, Antofagasta — the Atacama is the world's driest non-polar desert), Mediterranean Csb in central Chile (Santiago, Valparaíso), oceanic temperate Cfb in the south-central rainforests (Valdivia, Puerto Montt), and tundra to ice-cap ET/EF on the Patagonian Andes plus the Northern and Southern Patagonian Ice Fields, the largest extra-polar ice masses outside Antarctica.

Arica receives less than 1 mm of annual rainfall — among the lowest on Earth — with mild 18°C means moderated by the cold offshore current; Santiago at 520 m elevation shows a clear Mediterranean pattern (July ~9°C, January ~22°C, 320 mm concentrated in winter rains); Valdivia near 40°S receives over 2,400 mm of temperate rainforest precipitation; Puerto Aysén in northern Patagonia exceeds 2,800 mm; Punta Arenas on the Strait of Magellan averages 6.5°C year-round with strong westerlies.

Central Chile has experienced an extended dry period from 2010 to the present with precipitation patterns that are exceptional in 1,000-year tree-ring records. Strong El Niño episodes in 2015 and 2017 produced significant rainfall in the normally arid Atacama region. Patagonian glaciers have undergone rapid retreat. Wildfires in December 2017 (Las Máquinas complex) and February 2024 (Valparaíso region) were conditions intensified by climate factors.

Our archive covers 1 Chilean cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Santiago, around 15.6°C, while Santiago records the coldest January nights near 16.1°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about −0.1°C.