00:00Snow has turned parts of Chile's Atacama Desert white.
00:03The rare snowfall came during powerful winter storms in August.
00:07The Atacama is one of Earth's driest regions,
00:10but snow spread west from the Andes across the desert.
00:13NASA satellites captured the dramatic change from space.
00:17Landsat images showed the landscape before and after the storms.
00:20A later Terra satellite image revealed an even wider snow cover.
00:24The snow reached areas close to the Pacific coast.
00:27Severe weather also affected major astronomical observatories.
00:31ALMA temporarily suspended operations and entered protective mode.
00:35Heavy rain brought another unusual threat to northern Chile.
00:39In Taltal, nearly 40 millimeters fell in three days.
00:42That is about ten times the city's average annual rainfall.
00:46The extreme rainfall triggered mudflows and flash flooding.
00:49Thousands of people were affected across the region.
00:52Hundreds of homes also suffered major damage.
00:54Scientists linked the unusual weather to a strengthening El Niño.
00:59The rare storms show how dramatically weather patterns can change this normally arid landscape.
01:05This video contains stock footage and content created or enhanced using AI-assisted tools.
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