Snow in the Shadow of the Andes

Earth Observatory 

2 min read

Snow in the Shadow of the AndesImage of the Day for April 9, 2026

An early autumn storm left higher elevations in southern Argentina with a fresh and fleeting coat of white.

NASA Earth Observatory

Apr 09, 2026 Article

View more Images of the Day:Apr 8, 2026Instruments:

• Landsat 9 — OLI
• Terra — MODIS

Topics:

• Snow
• Topography

Snow covers large areas of southern Argentina’s high plains in this image acquired on April 3, 2026, by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite.NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

On the eastern, arid side of the Andes, the plains of southern Argentina stretch from the mountains to the Atlantic coast. The landscape often appears dry and brown, interrupted by colorful glacier-fed lakes, but a storm in early April 2026 blanketed swaths of the land in white. The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of the snowy Patagonian Desert on the morning of April 3.

Early fall has been wetter than normal in southern Patagonia, said atmospheric scientist René Garreaud of the Universidad de Chile, noting that