Summer snow in Andes resorts draws revelers

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First it was snow last year in Buenos Aires, the first frozen flakes seen in the Argentine capital in 89 years. Now, as folks flee to the coast and mountains seeking respite from the relentless Southern Hemisphere summer, some have bumped into another meteorological oddity: snow in the Andean resorts during these normally balmy months, as the newspaper Clarín reported.

Television here carried scenes of visitors romping in light snowfall last week in and around the high-altitude tourist retreats of Bariloche and San Martín de los Andes, both bustling ski towns between June and August. While not nearly as unusual as last July’s much-celebrated capital snowfall — which drew thousands of cheering porteños (as Buenos Aires residents are known) into the streets — the Andean flurries were another instance of peculiar weather happenings during this era of global climate change.

-- Patrick J. McDonnell in Buenos Aires