Fourteen years worth of rain caused severe flooding in what is known for being the driest location in the world.
The Atacama Desert is a very, very dry place. Arica, Chile, in the northern Atacama holds the record for the longest dry streak, having gone 173 months without a drop of rain in the early 20th century. In another Atacama neighbor to the south of Arica, the average annual rainfall in the city of Antofagasta is 0.07 inches.
But on Tuesday (April 1), heavy thunderstorms delivered 0.96 inches of rain in one day to parts of the Atacama Desert, which led the Copiapo River to swell far beyond its banks — though it typically doesn’t have any water in it at all.
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Even more dramatic footage here on the CBC.
