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Cahuelmo Fjord, Pumalin Park, Chile.

Current conditions in Santiago

Weather across Chile

The Climate in Chile by Geographic Zone

The Climate in the Northern Zone

In the interior of the Chile’s Big North we find the Atacama Desert, where precipitation is rare. Besides the nearby Pacific Ocean there are two main factors that cause the aridity. One is the high pressure influence of the South Pacific that blocks the frontal systems from passing through. The other is the barrier of the Andes Mountain Range that prevents the humid air of the tropical parts of the continent from passing through. The strong solar radiation and the infrared radiation emitted at night from the surface explain the strong thermal contrast between day and night.

The Climate in the Central Chile

The Central Chile is characterized by a Mediterranean climate. This climatic region, that comprises a large part of the Chile’s central region, has a rainy season in winter (May to August) and a somewhat longer dry period from September to April. The precipitation is typically associated with the frontal systems moving in from the Pacific. The humid period and the magnitude of the precipitation progressively increase towards the South, until it reaches a height in Valdivia, where there is no dry season.

The Climate in the Lakes Region

The climate in the South-central part of Chile is different from the Central’s Mediterranean climate mainly because of its absence of a dry season, though it does receive a significantly lower level of precipitation during the summer. The abundance of rain creates a landscape that is always green, with a native forest adapted to an annual precipitation of more than 1000 mm.

The Climate in the Patagonia

This extremely humid climate represents the conditions along the coast south of Puerto Montt, where the precipitation averages or exceeds 2000 mm a year. The high frequency of frontal systems that cross the region from the West explains the occurrence of a high number of cloudy days (between 20 and 25 days a month). The oceanic effect contributes to the moderate temperatures, which are significantly higher in the winter and lower during the summer, in comparison to the interior part of the continent at the same latitude. In the neighboring region towards the West, the effect of pluviometric protection of the Andes Mountains explains the considerably drier climate, where the annual precipitation is somewhat lower (for example, in Balmaceda or Chile Chico).