🇨🇱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 desert BWh and BWk 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, among the largest ice masses outside the polar regions.

Arica receives almost no rainfall, among the lowest on Earth, with mild daytime highs of 18–26°C moderated by the cold offshore current; Santiago at about 570 m elevation shows a Mediterranean-type pattern (July highs ~16°C and lows ~4°C, January highs ~30°C, about 290 mm concentrated in winter rains); Valdivia near 40°S receives over 1,700 mm of temperate rainforest precipitation; Puerto Aysén in northern Patagonia exceeds 2,200 mm; Punta Arenas on the Strait of Magellan has highs of only about 5°C in July and 16°C in January, with strong winds.

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. Unusual heavy rains in March 2015 caused floods in the normally arid Atacama region. Patagonian glaciers have undergone rapid retreat. Wildfires in January 2017 (Las Máquinas complex) and February 2024 (Valparaíso region) were intensified by climate factors.

Our archive covers 35 Chilean cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The hottest July afternoons are in Arica, with average highs around 21.3°C, while Punta Arenas has the coldest January nights, with average lows near 7.5°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 0.2°C.