Highest weather station in the Andes will help scientists search for climate answers
At 19,000 feet above sea level on the Chilean mountain of Tupungato, Baker Perry and his fellow climbers were clobbered in the early morning hours by an unforecasted blizzard that pinned them in their tents with punishing winds and swirling snow. Perry, a climate scientist at Appalachian State University, was philosophical as he recalled it.
Its part of the beauty of the mountains that it is so challenging. Thats one reason theres not many stations up in some of these places, says Perry. We want to see it at its stormiest and at its most challenging as well. Thats part of the climate. We need to measure that.
Perry is the co-leader of a team that in February braved a global pandemic and a two-week trek through dense snow to install a weather station just below the summit of Tupungato, a dormant volcano in the southern Andes, where Chile meets Argentina. Now the highest weather station in the Southern and Western hemispheres, the tool will help scientists understand how rapidly this regions climate is changing. The expedition was organized by the National Geographic Society and supported by Rolex.
With data on temperature, wind speed, and snowfall, scientists can better understand how central Chile and the countrys capital of Santiago will fare as climate change exposes the region to more droughtlike the historic one its in right nowwhile shrinking the mountain glaciers and snowpack that act as its water towers.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/highest-weather-station-in-the-andes-will-help-scientists-search-for-climate-answers/ar-BB1g5veE