Forecast for Monday 7/17 - Sunday 7/23

We'll have one more quiet day before things get complicated. As an upper-level area of low pressure approaches Tuesday afternoon, rain will begin to fall. A ridge ahead of this storm will really warm things up, and the more westerly/northern track will keep things warm at the onset. 

This storm has an alarming amount of moisture. Although there's a lot of variability across the models, they show anywhere from 20 - 40 cms (8 - 18 inches) of liquid. A lot of this moisture should fall once temperatures cool off, thankfully. Check out the precipitation forecast from the American model, which is in the 

The storm will remain warm through most of Thursday before a cold front arrives. This likely means a prolonged period of rain at low and mid elevations from Tuesday afternoon through Thursday. However, with the cold front on Thursday, rain will turn to snow and continue to fall for several days as temperatures continue to drop. By the end of this, significant snow totals are possible across much of the Andes, as the storm will linger through Sunday.

With high snow levels, the total snow at base elevations is a tricky forecast, but some mid and upper elevations could be measuring totals over 1m. Still, the exact timing of the arrival of the cold front is still uncertain, so conservatively, at resort base elevations, 40 - 80 cms are possible at resorts like Nevados de Chillan, Alto del Padre, Corralco, Antuco, Pucon, Caviahue, and Las Araucarias. Chilean resorts will be favored though the higher elevation of the northern Argentinian resorts will help. 

The tail end of the storm on Saturday and Sunday will be much colder, with below-normal temperatures that will allow the snow to really pile up during this period. These days will be pretty nasty, with very heavy snow and strong winds as well. 

To give you an idea of totals and where the heaviest snow will fall, check out the snow forecast from the European model below.

I will have an update on these snow totals in the next post as well.

Outlook for Monday 7/24 - Friday 7/28

Once the long-duration event wraps up on Sunday, we should have another break for the early part of next week. Models show more chances for storms as early as Wednesday, but right now it doesn't look like a major event. I will have an update on the following week in the next post. 

Thanks for reading the South America daily snow! Follow me @lstone84 on Instagram to check out some new content I will be creating for the North American summer months.