Rate/Rank Argentina's bizarre mountain stations (climate, snowy, warmest, records)

[Mhc1985]

A number of weather stations have existed throughout the Andes range of Argentina, but unfortunately most of them have been discontinued or lack long periods of records. However, data is enough to provide valuable information about the climate in very remote areas, which expectedly turns out to be strange.
Which one has the best climate?

From north to south:

ABRA PAMPA (22°S; 3480 m)
Dry subtropical highland, with stormy summers and very dry winters. Huge diurnal swings. Fairly typical from the Andean Plateau, albeit a bit extreme.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abra_Pampa#Climate



MINA LA CASUALIDAD (25°S; 4050 m)
Alpine tundra or cold desert. Bone dry. Located in the Puna de Atacama, with transitional precipitation regime… if we can say there is any.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mina_La_Casualidad



VALLE DE LOS PATOS SUPERIOR (30°S; 2880 m)
Dry Mediterranean Highland, somewhat snowy. Located in the deep, flat valley, thermal inversions are big.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_de_los_Patos



PUENTE DEL INCA (32°S; 2720 m)
Dry Mediterranean Highland, more snowy than the previous one, but subject to constant foehn winds that keep the environment extremely dry. Located in the road that connects Mendoza and Santiago, in the Central Andes of Argentina and Chile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente...hy_and_climate



CRISTO REDENTOR (32°S; 3850 m)
Located close to Puente del Inca, but at a higher elevation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ..._Andes#Climate



VALLE HERMOSO (35°S; 2290 m)
Mediterranean Highland and considerably wetter than the previous ones, yet the environment looks tundra-like due to the precipitation being overwhelmingly snow. Located near Las Leñas Ski Resort.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Le%C3%B1as#Climate



CERRO CATEDRAL (41°S; 1955 m)
Alpine tundra climate. Wet year round, with precipitation maximums in the winter. Ski Center Located in the Bariloche area in northern Patagonia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Catedral#Climate

[Kauan Mateus Kubaski]

Valle Hermoso probably would have extrapolated to more recent averages a Dsb (humid continental with dry summer) isotherm climate of 0 °C, with a negative average near this threshold in July. Probably the place in California should have a very similar climate.

[psyche_da_mike24]

The temperature contrast between Valle de los Patos Superior and Puente del Inca was pretty striking. So was the precipitation increase between 32 S and 35 S.

[marlaver]

Valle Hermoso, even though I would like the precipitation to be more mixed with rain rather than mostly snow.

[arcleo]

Abra Pampa is an easy choice. Warmest highs by far.

[wawa1992]

This is a bad crop of climates overall.

Valle Hermoso: 48.9% / F+
Cerro Catedral: 44.0% / F
Puente del Inca: 31.2% / F
Valle DLPS: 30.6% / F
Cristo Redentor: 23.1% / F-
Abra Pampa: 18.3% / Z+
Mina la Casualidad: 1.5% / Z-

Mina loses due to being a desert, Valle Hermoso wins due to relatively warmer summers and more precipitation with a less severe dry season than most.

[Isleofpalms85]

Cerro Catedral wins this battle for being the wettest climate of all of those climates and frankly it’s abundant annual precipitation is its only redeeming value.

[Joe90]

Cerro Catedral and Valle Hermosa have climates conductive to great skiing and do have great skiing, so get my first and second votes.

[Caleb Yeung]

Cerro Catedral for the abundant winter snow, followed by Valle Hermoso a close second.

[InchingWest]

If Argentina were geographically imposed on North America and mirrored North to South it would stretch from Tampico in the east-central part of Mexico all the way to Flin-Flon which straddles Manitoba and Saskatchewan.