Mondo Knows Facts
The Atacama Desert is the driest non-polar region on Earth
Some weather stations in Atacama have never recorded any rainfall
Stretching across northern Chile, the Atacama Desert sits in a rain shadow between the Andes and the Chilean Coast Range. Average rainfall is about 15 millimetres per year, but central areas receive less than one millimetre annually. Its dry air and clear skies make it an ideal location for astronomical observatories.
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Tags: atacama, chile, desert
The Atacama Desert is the driest non-polar region on Earth: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Some weather stations in Atacama have never recorded any rainfall. The figure is taken from NASA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a records & extremes fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Records & Extremes shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.