South America
South America contains remarkable climate contrasts -- the driest desert on Earth in the Atacama, the wettest rainforest in the Amazon basin, and the extreme winds of Patagonia and Cape Horn that have defined maritime history for centuries.
Highest Temperatures
South American record high
48.9°C
120°F -- historical reading, instrumentation uncertain
Rivadavia
Argentina's national heat record. The Gran Chaco region of northern Argentina and Paraguay is one of the hottest regions in the Southern Hemisphere, regularly exceeding 45°C in November and December. This is a historical record from 1905 and the exact instrumentation is not fully documented -- some uncertainty therefore applies.
Consistently extreme heat -- gran chaco
45°C+
Regularly in Southern Hemisphere summer
Gran Chaco region
The Gran Chaco lowlands, a vast subtropical dry forest covering parts of Paraguay, Bolivia and northern Argentina, experience some of the Southern Hemisphere's highest summer temperatures. Hot, dry winds from the interior combine with low humidity and strong solar radiation to produce sustained extreme heat from November through February.
Lowest Temperatures
Argentina national cold record
-32.8°C
-27°F -- historical reading from 1907
Sarmiento
Patagonia's interior is exposed to cold polar air masses from Antarctica and can experience hard frosts year-round. Sarmiento sits in a bowl-shaped depression in central Patagonia that traps cold air during winter anticyclones. Some Andean stations have reported readings approaching -39°C, though these lack full WMO verification.
Altiplano extreme cold
-20°C+
Frosts occur in every month of the year at altitude
Andes highlands
The Altiplano, sitting between 3,700 and 4,500m elevation, experiences extreme cold on clear winter nights as longwave radiation escapes through the thin atmosphere with little to trap it. Bolivia's capital La Paz and its neighbour El Alto at 4,150m regularly record sub-zero temperatures, and frost occurs in every month of the year at the highest inhabited settlements.
Precipitation
One of the two or three wettest places on Earth
~13,300 mm
~524 inches annual average
Lloro
One of the two or three wettest places on Earth, competing with Mawsynram and Cherrapunji in India. The Choco bioregion on Colombia's Pacific coast combines warm Pacific sea surface temperatures, persistent onshore flow and the orographic lift of the Western Andes to produce almost continuous rainfall. The measurement record is less consistent than the Indian stations, so the exact annual average is disputed.
Amazon basin annual rainfall
~2,000-3,500 mm
Across a basin the size of the continental United States
Amazon Basin
The central Amazon receives between 2,000 and 3,500mm annually, but the exceptional moisture recycling through evapotranspiration means the basin effectively generates its own rainfall -- sometimes called "flying rivers." The forest releases water vapour that travels thousands of kilometres before falling again as rain, including over the Brazilian agricultural heartland.
Driest city on Earth
~0.8 mm
<0.03 inches annual average
Arica
The driest city on Earth by average annual rainfall. Parts of the central Atacama have had no measurable rain for decades. Three factors combine to produce this extraordinary dryness: the cold Humboldt Current cooling coastal air and suppressing convection, the Andes blocking moisture from the east, and the persistent high pressure of the South Pacific anticyclone preventing frontal rainfall.
Wind
Windiest place in the inhabited world
200+ days
Days per year with storm-force winds above 89 km/h
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is widely regarded as the windiest place in the inhabited world. The Drake Passage, with no land mass to slow the westerly flow circling Antarctica, channels winds and swells that have claimed hundreds of ships over five centuries of navigation. Storm-force winds are documented on more than 200 days per year, and sustained Force 12 conditions are routine in winter. It defined the limits of sail-powered shipping for 300 years.