An unusually severe cold wave, even for the heart of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, is sweeping across Argentina. At least nine people, mostly homeless individuals, have lost their lives. The bitter cold has shattered historical temperature lows in the Latin American country, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis as the number of homeless has risen dramatically, according to a local NGO.
The cold snap intensified at the beginning of this week, with thermometers hitting -19°C early Wednesday morning (July 2, 2025) in the capital city of Buenos Aires—the lowest temperature recorded in the past 34 years, according to Argentina’s meteorological service. In the wider metropolitan area, temperatures fell to -7.4°C in El Palomar, marking the coldest reading there in 58 years and the second lowest since 1935.
Beaches along the Atlantic coast, such as Miramar—located about 450 kilometers from Buenos Aires—were covered in snow at the start of the week, an event not seen in the region for 12 years. The coldest location was Maciñao, a small town of around 3,000 residents in Patagonia, some 1,400 kilometers south of the capital, where temperatures have ranged between -12°C and -18°C since June 30.
According to the NGO ‘Proyecto 7,’ which specializes in helping the homeless, nine people across the country have died due to exposure to the extreme cold in the past ten days alone—an increase linked to the arrival of winter in the Southern Hemisphere. While authorities have not officially confirmed these figures, reports by regional media outlets support these claims. Among the victims were a 60-year-old woman found dead in a parking lot in Mar del Plata in southern Argentina, and a man discovered on a bench in Paraná in the north.
“There are now more families living on the streets—mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, and more children,” said Horacio Ávila, coordinator of Proyecto 7, during an interview on radio station ‘El Destape.’ He described the previous year as “fatal and devastating” for many Argentinians due to job losses and the removal of rent control policies, both of which contributed to rising homelessness.
Ávila pointed to the economic policies of Argentina’s ultra-liberal President Javier Milei as a major factor behind the growing crisis. According to official figures released in November 2024, approximately 4,050 people were living on the streets of Buenos Aires—a 23% increase compared to November 2023.