MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Santiago covered in snow and Chilean farms knock out

Snowing at Santiago de Chile main square

Chile's capital Santiago woke up Thursday to a very unusual sight: most of the city was covered by ten to fifteen centimeters of snow, becoming thicker towards the east and the mighty Andes cordillera.

The northern hemisphere post card scenery was the first since a similar situation in 1998. Snow actually begun falling late Wednesday night and education officials were quick in communicating that if necessary schools could close down for the day given the exceptional weather conditions. But snow also caused chaos and accidents in Santiago's traffic unaccustomed to clogged or slippery roads, street lights went off, areas of the city suffered temporary blackouts when tress fell over energy lines, some roads were closed down and areas in the east were cut off from the rest of the city. Shelters' capacity was virtually flooded by the homeless looking to run away from below zero temperatures. The exceptionally cold winter, almost polar conditions, the "white tremor" as the Chilean press describes it has also severely punished the country's agriculture with losses estimated in over 200 million US dollars plus tens of thousands of cattle and sheep dead because of the freezing temperatures and lack of food. "This has been the most rigorous winter in the last fifty years, and the latest snow storms means less exports, job losses, less fresh vegetables and an overall negative impact for regional and local economies", said Chilean Agriculture minister Alvaro Rojas who revealed that 30 to 40% of citrus and 30% of avocados crops "can be considered as lost". Rojas underlined that in Chile's III and IV regions "the situation is dramatic" with losses of cattle, sheep and goats climbing to 70.000 "since this is calving and lambing season". Regarding fruit exports Rojas said that August will be crucial for the grapes crop. If current conditions continue, exports will suffer significantly, but if the weather improves, "we could be luckier". Weather forecasts indicate the cold, polar weather is expected to continue for at least another week. Furthermore in spite of the snow and sleet, this has been a dry year for Chile with an estimated average rainfall shortage in the range of 30%.