Intense droughts lasting a year or two are common in Chile and other countries with Mediterranean climates. But the drought currently gripping central Chile—which has dragged on for more than a decade—is something quite different.
Since 2010, precipitation in central Chile has been below normal each year by an average of 20 to 45 percent. Around Santiago, home to more than 7 million people, the lack of rain has been particularly extreme, with just 10 to 20 percent of normal rain falling during the past few years.
No drought in Chile’s modern meteorological record (since 1915) has lasted longer, Paleoclimatologists who look for clues of past climate conditions in tree rings estimate that the last “megadrought” of this scale probably occurred in this region more than 1000 years ago, explained René D. Garreaud, a scientist at the University of Chile.
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