Snowfall in Chilean Atacama desert, world's driest

The Chilean city of El Salvador, deep in the Atacama Desert, had a snowfall on Thursday that covered a vast extension of land. Images from the area showed ice-covered vehicles and children playing in the area in 15 cm of snow, a region with only a few millimeters of rain each year.

Periodic snowfalls are expected around every four years in the Atacama Desert in June and July, making the snow during August a rare event. The Atacama Desert is considered the driest desert in the world, with an average of 12 to 16 millimeters of rain per year.