A few snow showers are possible in the northern zone today (Friday), with no more than a few cm expected. Meanwhile, the central and southern zones will remain dry through most of Sunday as a ridge keeps storms at bay. As early as Sunday afternoon the first in a series of many disturbances will move into the region.

If you're in the northern zone at Valle Nevado or Portillo, it would be a good time to hustle down to the central zone and set up. You could start at Corralco for the early part of the week and then make your way further south to Antillanca. That would be my tentative game plan at this point.

The latest guidance keeps all the upcoming storms over the southern part of the continent, resulting in little if any impact on the northern zone. The central and southern zones however will see off-and-on snow for the next week or more. The first storm, lasting from Sunday afternoon through Monday, will likely make it farther north than the others, allowing the northern part of the central one to do best.

I expect a good thump of snow with 20 - 40 cm for the Chilean side of the central zone through Monday night. Nevados de Chillan and Corralco could wind up in the 30 - 60 cm range. The Argentinian side will see less snow, likely in the 15 - 30 cm range. The latest snow forecast through Monday night from the European model is shown below.

I don't expect much of a break before the next storm is on us. The snow will pick up again on Tuesday morning and continue through most of Wednesday, with another round of solid accumulation. 

Storm #3 arrives around Thursday morning bringing moderate to heavy snow back to the central zone. This looks like a fast-moving system with the next storm moving in on Friday. I'll have more details about the subsequent waves on Monday.

Below you can see the upper-level pattern for the next week, with storm after storm traversing the southern part of the continent.

In the long-range, the models keep this same pattern going, with additional chances for snow as more southerly tracking storms move through. We may not see a break from this pattern until the middle of the second week of September. 

Next update on Monday.

Thanks for reading the South America Daily Snow!

Luke Stone (@imlukesnow)
Forecaster, OpenSnow

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