Sudestada (''Southeast blow'') is the

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of 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 the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

an name for a climatic phenomenon common to the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (; ), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda, Colonia, Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and ...

(an

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

formed by the combination of the Uruguay River and the

Paraná River The Paraná River ( ; ; ) is a river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina for some ."Parana River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. ...

on the southeastern coastline of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

) and its surrounding region. The phenomenon consists of a sudden rotation of cold southern winds to the south-east. This change, while moderating the cold temperatures, loads the air masses with oceanic humidity, bringing heavy rain and rough seas in the coastal regions. The air circulation also increases the intensity of the winds. The ''Sudestada'' is most likely to happen between July and October. It is analogous to the

nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below) is a large-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. Typically, such storms originate as a low ...

s in the northern hemisphere.

Types and causes of sudestada

A sudestada may take place with or (less commonly) without precipitation. The latter is caused by a high pressure system, centered on the southwest of

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires, officially the Buenos Aires Province, is the largest and most populous Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of the province an ...

in Argentina, bringing persistent 25 up to 45 knots strong winds to the mouth of the Río de la Plata. A sudestada with rain, on the other hand, is generated by the combined effect of two systems: a high pressure one located on the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of central Patagonia, which brings cold sea air to the east of Buenos Aires Province and the south of the Argentine littoral and

, and a low pressure system, located over the center-south of Argentine Mesopotamia and western Uruguay, which brings hot, humid air to the same region. As the pressure in the latter system drops, winds from the southeast increase.

Notes

References

Sudestada
Atmospheric dynamics Climate of Argentina Climate of Uruguay Spanish words and phrases Winds {{Uruguay-geo-stub

Types and causes of sudestada

See also

Notes

References