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Uruguay Climate
Located entirely within the temperate zone, Uruguay has
a
climate that is fairly uniform nationwide. Seasonal
variations
are pronounced, 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, which act as weather
barriers,
makes all locations vulnerable to high winds and rapid
changes in
weather as fronts or storms sweep across the country.
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 are 28° C and 17° C,
respectively,
with an absolute maximum of 43° C; comparable numbers for
Artigas
in the northwest are 33° C and 18° C, with the highest
temperature
ever recorded (42° C). Winter (July) average highs and
lows in
Montevideo are 14° C and 6° C, respectively, although the
high
humidity makes the temperatures feel colder; the lowest
temperature registered in Montevideo is -4° C. Averages in
July of
a high of 18° C and a low of 7° C in Artigas confirm the
milder
winters in northwestern Uruguay, but even here
temperatures have
dropped to a subfreezing -4° C.
Rainfall is fairly evenly distributed throughout the
year,
and annual amounts increase from southeast to northwest.
Montevideo averages 950 millimeters annually, and Artigas
receives 1,235 millimeters 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 are frequent.
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.
Data as of December 1990
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