Driest place on Earth sees 14 years' worth of rain in one day
TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - The Atacama Desert is the world's driest place on Earth with no rain seen for years at a time. But in late March one storm brought 14 years' worth of rain, bringing deaths and major floods to Chile.
Arica, Chile holds the record for the longest dry streak ever. Arica went 173 months (14 years) without a single drop of rain back in the early 1900s. The annual average amount of rain for a city close to Arica is .07". Tucson is in a desert, but we average over 11" of rain a year. About 160 times more rain a year than Antofagasta, Chile.
At the end of March a major high pressure system set up over southern Chile. This allowed a rain system to move into the Atacama and brought with it devastating rains to northern Chile. At least nine deaths are being blamed on major flooding.
Ninety-six hundredths of an inch of rain fell over some of the most arid land on earth, which the ground cannot handle. This water all rushed to the lower areas and acted like a raging river, in normally dry washes. Chile had declared a state of emergency.
