Chile flood toll: 107 dead or missing

[phantom power]

The death toll in Chile from severe flooding that hit March 23 - 26, 2015, is now 24, with 83 others officially listed as missing. According to EM-DAT, this would rank as Chile's 4th deadliest flood in recorded history. Although rainfall amounts were generally less than 2" (50.8 mm), the rains fell on Northern Chile's Atacama Desert region--the driest place on the planet. Antofagasta, which averaged just 3.8 mm of precipitation per year between 1970 - 2000, and has a long-term average of 1.7 mm of precipitation per year, received a deluge of 24.4 mm (0.96 inches) during the 24 hour period ending at 8 am EDT March 26. That's over fourteen years of rain in one day! According to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera, some areas in the Atacama Desert saw the equivalent of a century or so of rain in few hours. The 4 mm of rain that fell on the driest place on Earth--Quillagua, Chile--on March 23 - 25 was the first rain there in 23 years, and the amount that fell was about the same amount that had fallen in the previous fifty years. The rains triggered flooding that damaged some houses in the town. Apparently, the previous rain episode in Quillagua before 2015 was in 1918 or in 1919. All other precipition events were from blowing drizzle.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2951

[malaise]

1. I've been following this

What's amazing is how much rain fell in the driest place on earth

[Art_from_Ark]

3. What may be even more amazing

is how less than an inch of rain could cause such catastrophic flooding.

[hatrack]

6. In a lot of the Atacama, there's absolutely no vegetation whatsoever

In Colorado or Utah, there's at least some sagebrush and yucca and rabbitbrush to kind of serve as ground cover. Down there, it's just lots and lots of rock and sand and sun-baked earth.

Staggering footage - it looked like cars and small buildings and propane tanks and rail cars floating by - and at startlingly high speed.

[MrMickeysMom]

4. This is the first time I've seen this...

Good grief.

[AnnieBW]

2. But climate change is just a myth!

Right?

[malaise]

5. Of course