By Alexandre Aguiar / MetSul Weather Center

A major and historic winter storm is underway at this Wednesday morning in Argentina. Snow is falling in many parts of the country and in many areas not used to winter precipitation. Local news reports indicate snow already have been observed in the provinces of Mendoza, San Luis, San Juan, Cordoba, La Pampa and Buenos Aires.

In Bahia Blanca, a coastal city in the Southern part of the Buenos Aires, the snow storm is heavy and local authorities describe it as the worst snow event in 50 years. Roads are already blocked by snow and ice in the regional. TN news channel reports some areas of the Sierra de La Ventana could pick up even 3 feet of snow, unimaginable to the region.

Satellite image enlarged here.

Early this Wednesday afternoon, satellite pictures were showing a band of clouds advancing to the North and snow precipitation could no be ruled out in the capital Buenos Aires. In July 9th and 10th 2007 it snowed in the city of Buenos Aires for the first time in 89 years and it could snow again just two years later. Icecap note: snow mixed with the rain at Ezeiza a suburb of Buenos Aires at 5, 6 and 7 pm local time.

Snow was also reported in the capital of Chile, Santiago.

Intense cold winter storm off Buenos Aires- enlarged here.

MetSul Weather Center is not ruling out snow also in Uruguay. Our WRF model forecast scattered snow to neighboring Uruguay in the next 48 hours. The vast part of Uruguay is at sea level and snow is quite unusual in the region. MetSul is also advising the public and its clientele in Brazil about a severe cold outbreak in Southern Brazil in the next few days with lows only seen this decade in the historic events of July 2000 and July 2007.


Snow picture enlarged here.

See PDF here.

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SUNSPOTLESS DAY UPDATE

After the early month active sunspot region rotated off the visible disk, we have had 16 more days without a sunspot.

The total number of sunspotless days this protracted solar minimum now stands at 158 days this year and 669 total. With one more day, 2009 enters the list of the top dozen most spotless years, and one more week, the top ten. See plot below as of July 26, 2009.

Larger image here.