Extreme winter in Argentina: cold records and nine deaths in ten days

A severe and unusual cold wave, even by the standards of the austral winter, has swept Argentina over the past ten days, causing the death of at least nine people and setting a series of historical records for negative temperatures throughout the country, AFP reports.

• Temperature records broken

On Wednesday morning, Buenos Aires recorded -1.9°C, the lowest temperature in the last 34 years. In the suburb of El Palomar, located 25 kilometers from the capital, the mercury dropped to -7.4°C, a record low since 1966 and the second lowest value recorded in the area since 1935. In the city of Maquinchao, located in the Patagonia region, temperatures have fluctuated in recent days between -12°C and -18°C, well below the threshold of human comfort, although still far from the national record of -35°C reached in 1991. Here, the cold is nothing new, but its severity and persistence have taken even locals by surprise.

• Snow on the Atlantic beaches

Another rare phenomenon was represented by the snowfall that covered the beaches of the city of Miramar, 450 kilometers southeast of Buenos Aires. It is the first time in the last 12 years that the region has recorded such an episode of snowfall on the Argentine Atlantic coast.

• Homeless people, the most vulnerable

The NGO Proyecto 7, which provides support to the homeless, reported that at least nine people have died due to the cold in the last ten days. Among the victims are a 60-year-old man found dead in front of a garage in Mar del Plata and another discovered on a bench in the northern city of Parana. The organization emphasizes that the real figures could be higher, given that the authorities have not provided an official centralized balance sheet. According to the latest public data, more than 4,000 people were living on the streets of the capital Buenos Aires in November 2024, an increase of 23% compared to the same period the previous year.

• A rare but increasingly dangerous phenomenon

Although harsh winters are nothing new for the southern part of the South American continent, the extent and severity of the current cold wave raises questions about the preparedness of the authorities and the capacity of social services to deal with such crises. Climate experts warn that such extreme events - whether cold or hot - are becoming more frequent and more difficult to predict due to global climate change. While the northern hemisphere is experiencing sweltering heat waves, the southern hemisphere is battling severe frosts, endangering lives and destabilizing entire ecosystems. Faced with these realities, Argentine authorities are under pressure to adopt emergency measures and intervention plans to protect the most vulnerable categories of the population during periods of extreme weather. Until then, however, tens of thousands of people remain exposed to the cold, amid a winter that has only just begun.