Climate of Uruguay
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Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
has a
humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...
(Cfa according to the
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
). It is fairly uniform nationwide, since the country is located entirely within the temperate zone. Seasonal variations do exist, but extremes in temperature are rare. As would be expected by its abundance of water, high humidity and fog are common. The absence of mountains and other weather barriers makes all locations vulnerable to high winds and rapid changes in weather as fronts or storms sweep across the country. Weather is sometimes humid. The country is expected to get hotter and wetter with climate change, with some parts of the country becoming more tropical, with more extreme rain events.


Temperature and rainfall

Seasons are fairly well defined, and in most of Uruguay spring is usually damp, cool, and windy; summers are warm; autumns are mild; and winters are chilly and uncomfortably damp. Northwestern Uruguay, however, is farther from large bodies of water and therefore has warmer summers and milder and drier winters than the rest of the country. Average highs and lows in summer (January) in
Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
are , respectively, with an absolute maximum of ; comparable numbers for Artigas in the northwest are , with the highest temperature ever recorded (). Winter (July) average highs and lows in Montevideo are , respectively, although the high humidity makes the temperatures feel colder; the lowest temperature registered in Montevideo is . Averages in July of a high of and a low of in Artigas confirm the milder winters in northwestern Uruguay, but even here temperatures have dropped to a subfreezing .
Rainfall Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...
is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, and annual amounts increase from southeast to northwest. Montevideo averages annually, and Artigas receives in an average year. As in most temperate climates, rainfall results from the passage of cold fronts in winter, falling in overcast drizzly spells, and summer
thunderstorms A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are someti ...
are frequent.


Climate data


Winds

High winds are a disagreeable characteristic of the weather, particularly during the winter and spring, and wind shifts are sudden and pronounced. A winter warm spell can be abruptly broken by a strong pampero, a chilly and occasionally violent wind blowing north from the Argentine pampas. Summer winds off the ocean, however, have the salutary effect of tempering warm daytime temperatures. Occasionally, damaging
extratropical cyclone Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones or wave cyclones, are low-pressure areas which, along with the anticyclones of high-pressure areas, drive the weather over much of the Earth. Extratropical cyclones are capable of ...
s occur: * In 2005, a heavy storm affected southern Uruguay with winds of up to 200 km/h. * In 2012, another similar storm swept the southern coasts with winds of up to 172 km/h.


Climate change


Institutions

The Uruguayan National Directorate of Meteorology ( es, Dirección Nacional de Meteorología) is the leading institution in climatological matters. Since 1951 Uruguay is member of the World Meteorological Organization. As a consequence of the 4th General Meeting of
Global Environment Facility The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a multilateral environmental fund that provides grants and blended finance for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, persistent organic pollutants (POPs ...
in 2010, there will be an observatory specialized in
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
in Uruguay - a new experience on a world scale.


References


External links


National Directorate of Meteorology (in Spanish)
{{Uruguay topics
Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...