Articles | Volume 19, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1897-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1897-2025
Research article
 | 
19 May 2025
Research article |  | 19 May 2025

An unseasonal atmospheric river drives anomalous summer snow accumulation on glaciers of the subtropical Andes

Claudio Bravo, Sebastián Cisternas, Maximiliano Viale, Pablo Paredes, Deniz Bozkurt, and Nicolás García-Lee

Data sets

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA), Version 2. I. Durre et al. https://doi.org/10.7289/V5X63K0Q

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Short summary
We analysed the impact of a summer snow accumulation event linked to an atmospheric river in central Chile. Using observational and remote sensing data, we show that accumulation prevails in all the glaciers of the Maipo River basin, and this sole event defines the fact that the Olivares Alfa glacier mass balance was close to equilibrium despite it being a dry year. This demonstrates that an unseasonal accumulation event can counteract the seasonal trends affecting subtropical Andean glaciers.
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