the unbelievable day -...
TRANSCRIPT
The Unbelievable Daythe first major snow in Buenos Aires since June 22, 1918
by
Alexandre Amaral de Aguiar
SPPI REPRINT SERIES
2
The Unbelievable Day
Alexandre Amaral de AguiarMetSul Meteorologia Weather Center Communications Director
It was June 22nd 1918. Buenos Aires got covered by snow. That lasttime the Argentineans saw their capital covered in white the worldwas still fighting the First Great War, the former Russian czar wasexecuted by revolutionaries, the Spanish Influenza started to attackand Woodrow Wilson was in office as the 28th president of the UnitedStates of America and the planet was leaving the very cold period ofthe Little Ice Age.
It was July 9th 2007. Buenos Aires got covered by snow. TheArgentinean capital was white again after nearly a century. Nosuperpowers are in conflict, terrorism is the new menace, AIDS andbird flu are the health concerns, George W. Bush is in office as the43rd president of the United States of America and the planet iswarming in a fever of studies pointing to a global catastrophe due tohuman-induced greenhouse effect.
"Despite all my years, this is the first time I've ever seen snow inBuenos Aires", 82-year-old Juana Benitez was quoted as saying bythe Associated Press news agency. That was the overall feeling.Thousands of Argentines cheered in the streets of Buenos Aires asthe capital saw the first of its kind since 1918.
Local television stations showed people celebrating, dancing andtaking photos of the flakes falling over the Nueve de Julio Avenue.Early in the morning, snow already felt in some districts of themetropolitan area and flurries were sparse near Downtown. Duringthe afternoon hours the drizzle converted to freezing rain and then to
3
snow. The initial report of snow came from the Ezeiza InternationalAirport, in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, but minutes later it was alsosnowing in the densely populated areas of Central Buenos Aires. Wetsnow fell for eight hours in the Argentine capital and at sometimes itwas heavy.
Late in the afternoon snow became heavier and several districts ofBuenos Aires were already accumulating snow in the parks and overparked cars.
4
Another blast of heavy snow affected the city around 8 PM when thetemperature was zero degrees Celsius in Ezeiza and just one degreein the Downtown area. The snow rapidly accumulated over cars andthe grass. Scene of snowmen usually seen in the ski resorts of thePatagonia region were suddenly an attraction in the urban area of thelargest Argentine city.
5
Argentina's National Weather Service (Servicio MeteorologicoNacional) confirmed it was the first major snow in Buenos Aires sinceJune 22, 1918, though sleet or freezing rain have been periodicallyreported in decades since. The Servicio Meteorologico Nacionaldecided not to issue any snow forecast. The government agencydirector told the media snow was so rare that the forecasters decidednot to issue a warning, despite the indication of the forecast modelsand the warnings from the University of Buenos Aires’ WeatherService, MetSul Meteorologia in Brazil and AccuWeather’s JimAndrews in the United States. "This is the kind of weatherphenomenon that comes along every 100 years," forecaster HectorCiappesoni told La Nacion newspaper. "It is very difficult to predict".It was not a difficult event to predict, but an event difficult to believeuntil the flakes started to whiten the city.
The frigid weather was not confined to Buenos Aires. It snowed forthe first time in 35 years in some cities of the northern Buenos AiresProvince. It snowed for the first time in history in some towns of theSanta Fe Province. Southern Santa Fe Province experienced the
6
snowiest day since 1973. Cordoba City the heaviest snowfall since1975. Mendoza went trough he heaviest snowstorm in decades.Temperature fell to minus 19 degrees Celsius in Patagonia and nearall-time record in Bariloche (most famous ski resort in SouthAmerica). Windchill in Bariloche was record: -minus 22 degrees. Lowtemperature in Bahia Blanca, Southern Buenos Aires province, fell tooutstanding 9 below zero Celsius. Snow also fell in northern Provincesand in Bolivia isolated the capital La Paz from the rest of the country.
The snow event followed a bitterly cold month of May that sawsubfreezing temperatures, the coldest in 40 years in Buenos Aires.That cold wave contributed to an energy crisis and dozens of deaths.This 2007 May figured among the coldest in recent decades also inUruguay and Southern Brazil (GISS global temperature anomaly mapfor May).
The huge city of Buenos Aires got warmer in recent decades.Urbanization was dramatic and the temperature followed theincredible expansion of the city along the 20th century. Nearby townswith rural stations or near the sea showed little or no warming andsome presented even a cooling trend since the 80’s.
7
The day Buenos Aires saw snow after nearly a century in the globalwarming era will be remembered for generations. As 1918 wasremembered in the beginning of the 21st century. It will beremembered as the unbelievable day. The day some said it wasimpossible, but Nature proved differently.
*************
8
News wire stories
Argentina cold snap causes energy woes
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070601/ap_on_bi_ge/argentina_energy_woes_1
By BILL CORMIER, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jun 1, 12:48 AM ET
A cold snap in Argentina led to electricity and natural gas shortagesthis week, idling factories and taxis and causing sporadic blackouts inthe capital.
Beset by the coldest May since 1962, millions of residents fired upspace heaters, straining Buenos Aires' electrical grid for three nightsand forcing authorities to slash power supply nationwide and brieflycut domestic natural gas provisions and exports to Chile.
Grumbling taxi drivers waited for hours in lines stretching severalblocks to fill up their black-and-yellow cabs with scarce compressednatural gas. Some protested by tossing garbage into the streetsduring rush hour Thursday, causing traffic jams.
"I went all over town to 15 service stations and couldn't findcompressed gas anywhere," said Ernesto Gorena, whose taxi wasamong some 70 percent of the city's natural gas-powered fleet thatwas temporarily idled.
Temperatures hit the freezing point or dipped below for threesuccessive nights in the capital, which has not seen snow in years.Such cold is rare for the southern-hemisphere autumn in BuenosAires, which normally sees temperatures in the 40s and 50sFahrenheit or higher this time of year.
Critics said the three-day blast of Antarctic air — which is also blamedfor 23 deaths from exposure as well as fires from faulty heaters —has brought to light weaknesses in the nation's plan for meetingrising energy demand.
Political analyst Rosendo Fraga said Argentina's energy woes date toa 2002 economic crisis, when regulators froze rates for home utilitybills just after the peso devalued more than 70 percent against thedollar. Since then, far less revenue has been available for upgradingand building plants and other infrastructure.
9
"A lack of investment in the energy system, in great part generatedby the freeze on utility rates, has created a situation which soon orlater could explode," Fraga said.
Many factories went idle this week when distributors shut off orreduced gas supplies to give priority to homes. Governmentregulators also ordered an 800-megawatt electricity cut nationwidefor four hours Wednesday night, which led to sporadic blackouts inthe capital.
At a shampoo and detergent factory in suburban Buenos Aires,executive Alberto Rodriguez said workers had to race to meetproduction goals after one outage.
"The lights went out for several hours," Rodriguez said. "To a greateror smaller extent, we are all suffering from a lack of energy and gas."
On Thursday, officials said there was enough energy to meet demandas temperatures warmed, and they defended their response to thecold snap.
"The energy system during the days of extremely low temperaturesresponded well," said Julio De Vido, the nation's top energy planner.He called the cold an "extraordinary climate event unseen here in 45years."
He said Argentina imported energy from Brazil and Uruguay to meetsurging demand, and compressed gas supplies had been restored toservice stations.
The shortages also had a ripple effect in neighboring Chile, whereauthorities scrambled to provide energy after Argentina slashednatural gas exports. De Vido confirmed that Argentina resumedshipments to Chile on Wednesday.
Energy analyst Gerardo Rabinovich said more problems could be onthe way in the next two years before a series of new gas-firedgenerating plants commissioned by the Argentine government are upand running.
"Cold weather always produces energy usage peaks and problems,"Rabinovich said, adding that Argentina "sneezed" when the freezingtemperatures hit. "As in medicine, the fever doesn't just happen onits own; it happens as a result of some underlying disease."
**************
10
Buenos Aires sees rare snowfall
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6286484.stm
Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, has seen snow for the first time in89 years, as a cold snap continues to grip several South Americannations.
Temperatures plunged to -22C (-8F) in parts of Argentina's provinceof Rio Negro, while snow fell on Buenos Aires for several hours onMonday.
Two deaths from exposure were reported in Argentina and one inChile.
In Bolivia, heavy snowfall blocked the nation's main motorway andforced the closure of several airports.
In Argentina, several provinces in the Andes have been placed undera storm alert, according to the national weather centre.
But thousands of people cheered in the streets of Buenos Aires at thesight of the capital's first snowfall since 1918.
"Despite all my years, this is the first time I've ever seen snow inBuenos Aires," 82-year-old Juana Benitez was quoted as saying bythe Associated Press news agency.
Energy strain
In Chile, temperatures dropped to -18C (0F) in parts of Araucaniaregion in the south.
Meteorologists predict that the cold snap will last for several moredays.
Bitterly cold weather in May caused some 20 deaths and forced theArgentine authorities to ration supplies as the country's energysystem came under strain.
Monday's snowstorm struck on a national holiday in Argentina. Theauthorities are watching the demands on the power grid as thecountry gets back to work on Tuesday.
However, ministers have already appealed to consumers to saveenergy where they can.
11
Correspondents say although Argentina's economy has been growingstrongly in recent years, there has not been sufficient investment ininfrastructure.
Argentine meteorologists are predicting more cold and even freezingweather over the next few days.
Robert Ferguson, President
209 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Suite 299
Washington, D.C 20003
www.scienceandpublicpolicy.org (202) 288-5699