Chile continues to suffer ‘very deep drought’ despite rainy season: govt

Santiago de Chile, Aug 20 (EFE).- The storms Chile experienced this week slightly improved the country’s rainfall deficit, but the country continues to suffer from “a very deep drought,” Public Works Minister Alfredo Moreno said Friday.

The last rains, mainly on Wednesday and Thursday, reduced the rainfall deficit from between 60 percent and 80 percent (compared to a normal year) registered in July to between 50 percent and 80 percent, authorities said.

The regions that improved in relation to the rainfall deficit are those of O’Higgins and Maule (both in the center), where the storm was more intense and reduced the accumulated deficit from 60 percent to 50 percent.

Meanwhile, the regions of Valparaiso (central coast) and Metropolitana (in which Santiago de Chile is located) had less rain, with 17 millimeters in Santiago, maintaining their deficit level.

“I want to be emphatic in pointing out that although the snow and the rain meant a little help, we continue to experience a very deep drought,” Moreno said.

In relation to the amount of snow accumulated after the frontal system, authorities said that it reached 43 centimeters at the Laguna Negra station, where the Maipo river is born, next to the El Yeso reservoir, where all the water sources are located. for the Metropolitan region.

“We had a good contribution from this front, in July we had one centimeter of snow, but to put it again in the context of a normal year we should have one meter 30 centimeters,” Moreno said.

Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt said that beyond the rains left by the frontal system, the drought continues, as a result of the effects of climate change at the global level and in the country itself.

“The recent rains are positive given the enormous water deficit that we have in the country, however, they do not change the structural drought that we are experiencing in Chile,” Schmidt said.

“The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on climate change shows the increase in temperature, added to the decrease in rainfall and the increase in extreme weather events are going to occur with increasing frequency, especially in South America,” she added.

According to authorities, the projections for the next quarter show rains below normal between the regions of Coquimbo and Araucanía, so the outlook that is projected is that of an accumulation also below normal. EFE

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