South America Daily Snow
By Luke Stone, Forecaster Posted 9 months ago August 26, 2024
Week Starts Quiet, More Action Later
Summary
The weak storm to the south wraps up this morning and will be followed by a few days of benign weather. Later in the week, another small storm will bring snow back to the northern zone, but this storm is looking less impressive than a few days ago. A stronger storm is possible later next weekend into the early part of next week.
Short Term Forecast
A small storm crossing the southern tip of the continent brought light to moderate snow from Sunday through this (Monday) morning. I haven't seen any reports yet, but I expect 5 - 15 cm fell on the Chilean side of the central zone. Any lingering snow showers will wrap up by this afternoon.
We'll then see a ridge moving into the southern part of the continent that will start a warming trend. At the same time, however, yet another cut-off low will develop north of this feature. This looks like another Rex Block setup, but this time the low will be too far north for any major impacts. The best dynamics may occur north of the resorts and on the Argentinean side of the range as easterly flow develops.
The models leave room for a better storm though, with some models taking the storm a bit farther south. I will show this through the latest snowfall forecasts from the European and American models. The European model, in the first image, keeps the heavy snow north of the resorts in the northern zone.
The American model has this heavy snow a bit farther south, letting Las Lenas get in on the action. With a closed low off the coast, the clockwise flow would bring easterly flow that favors the eastern side of the Andes, putting Las Lenas in a better position. The closed low, as I've mentioned before results in a smaller area with the right ingredients for heavy snow, so I don't expect too much snow on the Chilean side in this setup.
Since this storm isn't expected to get going until Wednesday night, I'll give the models a few more days to work things out.
Extended Forecast
The midweek storm should wrap up by Friday night and give way to a more mellow weekend. The models are showing a stronger storm arriving around Sunday night with heavy snow possible in the central zone. More on that on Wednesday.
Next update on Wednesday.
Thanks for reading the South America Daily Snow!
Luke Stone (@imlukesnow)
Forecaster, OpenSnow
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