Wednesday will be our last dry day before the next series of storms begins in the Andes. Temperatures remain warm for most of the day before starting to fall in the afternoon as the cold front associated with the first storm comes on shore. 

As temperatures drop closer to freezing near the bases snow will start to fall on a Wednesday night. For many resorts in the central zone, snow may fall without any breaks through Wednesday of NEXT week. 

As I mentioned in the previous forecast, we have several systems lined up in the South Pacific that will move through the Andes one after another. Given how quickly they’re coming, it’s hard to clearly distinguish when one storm ends and the other begins. I’ll do my best to break it down system by system.

The first storm arrives Wednesday night with the cold front, as I mentioned, and will continue through Friday morning. The northern part of the central zone looks deepest from this round, at Nevados de Chillan, Antuco, Corralco, and Las Araucarias. Expect 20 - 50 cm in this region, with 40 - 80 cm at Chillan.

Totals will drop off further south in the central zone, with 10 - 25 cm on the Chilean side and 5 - 15 cm on the Argentian side. Totals look a bit lower for the northern zone in today's models, and < 10 cm are expected. 

The second storm will move in on Friday and will bring additional snow with little or no break in the action. An atmospheric river will accompany this system, providing ample moisture and deeper snow totals. The southern part of the central zone should do best with this one, but this zone should see 30 - 60 cm +

Finally, what we'll call storm #3, will keep snow going on Sunday with little to no break once again. Another extended period of moderate to heavy snow is expected with this storm, and you can see an early look at snow totals below. I'll have more details on this storm on Friday.

Overall, there will be a cooling trend as these three storms impact the region, with the third storm looking the coldest. The first two storms should be all snow but on the denser side. Winds will be strong and at times extreme throughout this cycle, so lift closures should be expected. 

We could see additional storms through the end of the month, with the long range models showing chances for more snow.

Next update on Friday.

Thanks for reading the South America Daily Snow!

Luke Stone (@imlukesnow)
Forecaster, OpenSnow

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