Climate dans la Région des Lacs

The geographical configuration of this part of the world naturally justifies disparities in climate: the Cordillera enjoys a humid climate, the interior a dry climate, and the Atlantic coast a dry climate mitigated by the proximity of the ocean. Descending towards Tierra del Fuego, the climate becomes "subantarctic", characterized by the aptly named roaring forties and howling fifties. Here, the weather is capricious, with wet cold combined with torrential rain, and heavy swells accompanied by the worst ocean storms. When winter gives way to the austral summer, between December and February, certain microclimates promise stays under an almost Mediterranean sun. Patagonia is the kingdom of the wind, and owes its relief to its best allies, who will undoubtedly be your worst enemies at times (especially if you're camping!): headwinds, impetuous, howling and tortuous - a true Patagonian character trait, with everyone bowing down in their path!

The empire of the winds

"The Patagonian steppe invites humans to silence, for the powerful voice of the wind always tells of where it has come from and, laden with scents, tells of all it has seen", confides Luis Sepulveda in his book Nouvelles du sud. Nothing stands still for long on this immense land, neither sun, nor rain, nor snow, nor mist. By the time you close your eyes and open them again, the weather has changed and the wind has pushed the scenery further and further towards the horizon. For here on Earth as in the sky, the wind is master of all things, from the Argentine steppe to the farthest reaches of the Chilean archipelagos. And while it may be invisible, its force is responsible for the slightest relief in a landscape that it has forged over time: the trees, whose trunks curve towards the ground, the erosion and color of the rocks, the waves of the crystalline lagoons... The further south you venture, the more violent and frightening the winds become, and with good reason they have been dubbed the Roaring 40th and Howling 50th. These winds, found in the Southern Ocean and named after the southern parallels that delimit them, are the equivalent of the latitude between northern Portugal and the English Channel coast in our hemisphere, proving that the climate is harsher in the southern hemisphere for the same latitude! In the 17th century, early navigators relied on these powerful gusts to reach the Pacific Ocean more quickly. But even though they have shaped maritime routes, these unpredictable winds are the most hostile on the planet. A famous maritime saying puts it rather well: "Under 40 degrees, there's no law, but under 50 degrees there's no God". Behind the saying lies a scientific reality: the temperature conflict between the icy waters of Antarctica and the warm currents that surround the ice continent. The result is a meteorological clash that creates a multitude of lows, each time draining a larger swell: waves can reach up to 30 metres in height...

A hostile climate

"Cuando los tordos negros bajan de las montañas a la costa, significa que viene tiempo frío": (when starlings descend from the mountains to the coast, it heralds cold weather), "Si cae nieve antes del 4 de abril en la zona del Beagle, el invierno será bueno",(if it snows before April 4 in the Beagle Channel area, winter will be mild). The weather, unpredictable as it may be, has given rise to a number of superstitions, all designed to help us cope with the vagaries of a climate that is not always kind to us! But how can you anticipate the weather? The answer is nowhere to be found, ephemerally inscribed in the immensity of the Patagonian sky, where you can experience four seasons in one and the same day: wind, snow, rain or sun, you can expect anything! Here, the weather defies all logic, and it's not because you're heading south that temperatures drop: in Río Gallegos, temperatures can plummet to -20°C, but in Ushuaia the mercury rarely dips below -21°C. In winter, things get even more complicated, especially in Chile: the lake region is covered in snow, and the rains are heavy. This inability to know the weather situation has given rise to another Patagonian saying: "Quien se apura en la Patagonia pierde el tiempo" (those who rush to Patagonia lose their time). Nature plays such a fundamental role in our daily movements and activities that when the weather is bad, it's best to wait it out and stay at home! On average, temperatures are 10°C lower than in summer. This may sound bearable, but the rain and wind are freezing and most infrastructures are out of action. However, some tourists are venturing to the ski resorts, the last option for those still looking for a thrill. Despite the fleeting sunshine, the contrasting seasons and a few microclimates guarantee pleasant stays in certain regions. Such is the case around El Bolsón or Los Antiguos in Argentina, or Chile Chico and Araucania in Chile. In these areas, temperatures can reach 25 to 30°C in summer.

Climate change

Of course, this region of the world is not immune to the major current issue of climate change - quite the contrary, in fact: because they are warming faster, the polar regions are the most affected. As the ice caps melt, Patagonia is suffering the most serious and devastating effects of global warming, destabilizing its ecosystems and reducing its biodiversity. In 2019, this is the first time that heat records have been set at such high latitudes in the southern hemisphere. Heat records were set in the Biobío and Araucania regions, with temperatures reaching 41.6°C. In 2023, further south, temperatures also reached extreme values: up to 39.2°C at Perito Moreno, 32.5°C at Punta Arenas and 35.8°C at Río Gallegos. Finally, in a rare and alarming phenomenon, it was the first time that the temperature exceeded 31°C in Tierra del Fuego. These historic heat waves are now accompanied by extreme weather events, such as flooding on the Atlantic coast and devastating heatwaves in the pampas, which led to the death of over a million cattle in 2008. The historic rise in temperatures recorded over the past few summers has been offset by below-normal temperatures: at the height of summer, negative temperatures were recorded between Puerto Montt and Osorno. A victim of this global warming, the Perito Moreno glacier, reputed to be one of the only glaciers in Patagonia not to retreat, fractured in 2018 and 2019. Massive fractures were observed, with icebergs breaking off and releasing large quantities of freshwater into the ocean, altering the composition of the water and disrupting the marine ecosystem. By 2021, experts have reported a further retreat of the region's glaciers, with a loss of glacier mass of up to 1.4 meters of equivalent water, while glaciers worldwide have lost an average of around 8.5 meters of equivalent water since 1970. In Chile, two pieces of the Grey Glacier also disintegrated within a few weeks of each other. Then, in 2019, the ice giants continued to crack their old bones: in February, an 8.8-hectare iceberg broke away from Grey Glacier, and shortly afterwards, another 6-hectare fracture occurred. The retreating glaciers dump large quantities of freshwater into the ocean. The composition of the water changes, impacting the entire marine ecosystem. Humpback whales, for example, are beginning to desert Chilean fjords: the increase in freshwater has altered the microscopic organisms they need to feed. In the Andes mountain range, there is less and less snow (some peaks have lost 60% of their snowfall in a century), and winters are getting milder. Climate change can also be seen on the pampas, with heat peaks taking a heavy toll on flora and fauna: during the 2008 heatwave, more than one and a half million cows perished. On the Atlantic coast, floods are multiplying and rising waters threaten seaside resorts, while the cold, rainy climate is giving way to microclimates more conducive to agriculture: Patagonian wine, born in the 2010s, is the southernmost in the world. A window onto a future that does not look very bright, Patagonia is proving to be an excellent laboratory for scientists: the region is home to a chain of events that should be observed in other ecosystems over the coming decades. A number of scientists have settled here to set up probes. They monitor the evolution of ecosystems and try to anticipate global warming in the world's other seas. In 2019, the 25th UN Climate Conference was officially scheduled to be held in Chile. However, in the midst of a social crisis, the country finally decided not to organize the event a month before its official launch. Against a backdrop of crisis, for reasons of image or security, the Chilean authorities turned their backs on a major issue. As the world's largest glacier reserve, Chile was expected to welcome some 25,000 people and commit to making progress on ecological issues. COP25 was finally held in Madrid.