The scale of this winter’s snow across the Andes is now visible from space.
NASA satellite imagery from Aug 18 shows the Cordillera coated white for hundreds of miles through Chile and Argentina, from around San Juan and Mendoza south toward Patagonia.
The image coincided with the reopening of the Cristo Redentor/Los Libertadores crossing between Argentina and Chile after a record 34 consecutive days closed by repeated heavy snow, ice and strong winds.
The shutdown was the longest on record, surpassing the previous 26-day closure in 2023.
Thousands of trucks had backed up on the Argentine side, with freight now finally moving again through corridors carved between deep snowbanks. Passenger vehicles and buses remained restricted as operations restarted.
Snow has extended well beyond the highest peaks this winter, with widespread cover hitting Mendoza and La Pampa.
Despite a summer saturated with heat headlines, Northern Hemisphere snow cover is sitting unremarkably normal.
The latest NOAA/NESDIS satellite data show snow-cover extent running almost exactly along the tracker’s average, a little above if anything:
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