People walk through a main street under snow in Auckland, New Zealand, Monday, Aug, 15, 2011. Services across the country were disrupted Monday by the snowfalls, which were accompanied by heavy rain and high winds. (AP Photo/New Zealand Herald, Sarah Ivey)
My dad and I were talking about this year's weather and how totally and completely schizophrenic it has been. Between the record snowfall, spring storms and blazing summer here, he's right.
Looking down south--way, way south--the weather is just as wild.
I've mentioned before Australia's crazy winter this year. Well, Australia's neighbor
New Zealand is also totally off the wall.
Wellington, New Zealand's capital, had only a few inches of snow Sunday and Monday. "Only a few inches, you say? Psh." I know. But, those few inches are the most that has fallen there in at least 30 years. So, that's crazy! According to the Associated Press, people were taking pictures and cheering what forecasters were calling a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Across the South Pacific now for some more unusual winter weather.
This is the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, considered by many to be the driest desert on Earth. Well, parts of it received 32 inches of snow last month.
32 inches! That's a lot of snow for somewhere that isn't the driest place on the planet. Annually, the desert gets about 2 inches of rainfall, and some parts of the desert have never received any rainfall, at least as long as people have been measuring that sort of thing.
A few weeks later, the Chilean city of Lonquimay in the east-central region received up to 9 feet of snow. The July 17-20 event was the
worst in 30 years, according to the Chilean president. About 6,500 rural residents were isolated because of the snowfall.
The
average high temperature in northern Chile is about 72 during June, July and August. Just before the snow, the temperature in Santiago--also near the country's midsection--dropped to 18 degrees.
If this is 2011's weather so far, I can't wait for the rest of it...
--Jerry Wofford
