Balmaceda is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an village () located south east of

Coyhaique Coyhaique (), also spelled Coihaique in Patagonia, is the Capital (political), capital List of cities in Chile, city of both the Coyhaique Province and the Aysén Region of Chile. Founded by settlers in 1929, it is a young city. Until the twentiet ...

Aysén Region The Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region (, , '), often shortened to Aysén Region or Aisén,Examples of name usage1, official regional government site refers to the region as "Región de Aysén"., Chile's official meteorological ...

. Balmaceda has around 500 inhabitants, and has Aysén Region's largest airport and meteorological station,

Balmaceda Airport Balmaceda Airport is an airport next to the village of Balmaceda, serving the Aysén Region of Chile. The airport is west of the Argentina border, it is located 55 km south-east of Coyhaique, the regional capital. Expansion plans In 2016 ...

History

The first settlers arrived into the zone in the early-20th century after being expelled from

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

since the borders between Chile and Argentina were drawn in 1902. In 1917 Balmaceda was officially founded and was named after the Chilean president

José Manuel Balmaceda José Manuel Emiliano Balmaceda Fernández (; July 19, 1840 – September 19, 1891) served as the 10th President of Chile from September 18, 1886, to August 29, 1891. Balmaceda was part of the Castilian-Basque aristocracy in Chile. While h ...

. Balmaceda was recognized as a town by the government of Chile in 1928, initially being one of the largest inland Chilean settlements in what is now the Aysén Region. In 1945, The Chilean Air Force constructed an airfield, which is no longer in use. Beginning in November 2018, the airline JetSmart began operating routes between Balmaceda and Santiago, Punta Arenas, and Temuco.

Transport

Balmaceda is linked to Route 40, in Argentina, via a 102 km gravel extension road.

Climate

The climate of Balmaceda is an unusual combination of the dry-summer

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

characteristic more typical of

Central Chile Central Chile (''Zona central'') is one of the five natural regions into which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. It is home to a majority of the Chilean population and includes the three largest metropolitan areas—Santiago, Valparaí ...

with the subpolar oceanic characteristics more typical of

southern Chile Southern Chile is an informal geographic term for any place south of the capital city, Santiago, or south of Biobío River, the mouth of which is Concepción, about {{convert, 200, mi, km, sigfig=1, order=flip south of Santiago. Generally citie ...

. It has the

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

, bordering the extremely rare cold-summer Mediterranean climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Csb'', borderline ''Csc''), with short, though dry summers, and long, somewhat snowy though not severe winters. Precipitation, however, is markedly lower than on the coast of Chile owing to the rain shadow of the Andes, being about one-sixth to one-seventh what is received on the coast at the same latitude. Snow is very common during the winter but rarely stays on the ground.

Notes

References

{{Reflist Populated places established in 1917 Populated places in Coyhaique Province