Visviri, Chile, -16,7°C, only 0,4°C from All-time June Record!

nning display of Andean winter power, the remote highland town of Visviri recorded on June 8th 2025 a bone-chilling –16.7 °C, coming within just 0.4 °C of its all-time June record low. This exceptional reading highlights an ongoing surge of Antarctic-origin cold air impacting high-altitude regions of northern Chile, Bolivia, and southern Peru.

🌍 Location Context: Where the Andes Freeze

Nestled in the extreme north of Chile, near the tripoint border with Bolivia and Peru, Visviri sits at an elevation of ~4,070 meters — high enough to regularly see below-freezing temperatures during the Southern Hemisphere winter. But –16.7 °C is rare, even by local standards.

📍 Coordinates: 17.6° S, 69.3° W
🗻 Altitude: ~4,070 m (13,353 ft)

📉 Historical Perspective: Almost a Record

🔹 June 2025 minimum: –16.7 °C
🔹 All-time June record: –17.1 °C
🔹 Record gap: Just 0.4 °C

The record was narrowly missed, but this event still ranks among the coldest June nights ever observed in the town’s climatological history.

🧊 Atmospheric Setup: A Textbook Cold Pool

The extreme temperature was driven by:

A persistent cold air mass descending from the Antarctic Plateau,
Clear night skies, allowing maximum radiative cooling,
And calm winds at high elevation — perfect for strong nocturnal inversion.

These conditions created intense surface cooling, especially in basin-like topography where cold air pools efficiently.

🧭 Regional Impact

Similar cold was observed in Oruro (Bolivia) and El Alto, where subzero lows dominated the Altiplano.
Cattle, crops, and indigenous communities in the Arica y Parinacota region face increased exposure risks due to the deep frost.

🔭 Looking Ahead

Forecast models suggest that cold anomalies may persist for several more days, especially overnight. Monitoring will continue in case the all-time record is challenged again.