Raining? In Santiago!?

After raining exactly twice in 5 months (the first time, a nice thunderstorm in mid-March, and the second, a day of light showers in April), this week has seen the environment play catch-up here in Santiago.

We have had measurable rain for 5 straight days! A total of 35 mm (about 1.4") has fallen, which is about 10% of our annual average. Hurray for rain - and for the clean air it brought. Santiago normally is pretty polluted, a fact that becomes quite evident when the visibility jumps from its average of < 5 miles to way over 20! Today I saw parts of the city, and our mountains, that hadn't been visible for over 2 months! Here the past 7 days of temperature (top), humidity (middle, blue line), and rainfall (middle, pink line) are plotted. This instrument is on the roof of our department building here at the University of Chile.