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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.

Uruguay is in the temperate zone of South America, between latitudes 30 º and 35 º South latitude and meridians 53 ° and 58 ° longitude West. Uruguay is bordered by Argentina to the west, Brazil north and northeastern, Rio de la Plata to the south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. The Uruguayan coast covers over 680 km. Approximately 70% of the population lives in coastal areas. The total population is 3,380,177 inhabitants. The rate of population growth (0.6%) was one of the lowest in the Americas since the 1960s. The area is 175,016 km2, with approximately 140,000 km2 territorial sea, islands and waters of the rivers and lagoons surrounding.

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.

Both Uruguayan climate and the coastal environment are in a process of change although causes have not been identified. These changes include: a) an increase of 200 mm in rainfalls in Montevideo since 1883, which became more evident in the period 1961-1990, b) an increase of 0.5 oC in air temperature and a decrease of 0.5 mm Hg in atmospheric pressure, c) for the period 1961-1990, an increase in mean summer temperatures , d) in the last decades, an increase of 30% in the fluvial flow pouring in River Plate and a decrease in mean annual salinity in the Uruguayan coast and e) a greater occurrence of noxious algae build-up in the Eastern coast of the Uruguay river. These changes alone - without considering the global change - justify the need to conduct in-depth research on the local environmental processes and their interaction with regional and global phenomena (such as ENSO).

Because of its small territory and the low level of industrialization, the contribution of Uruguay to the generation of global warming is not significant. It has an economy based primarily on the use of natural resources. Therefore, however, Uruguay's vulnerability to climate change is high. The vulnerability is influenced by certain factors of geography. Part of the country is located on the coast Rio de la Plata, a large natural variability, downstream of a large basin, which is impacted by the activities and efforts carried out in several regions covering the basin. Also subject to the effects of complex ocean- earth-atmosphere system in the Southwest Atlantic, these facts contribute to its natural variability.

Climate change impacts include warming trends with increase in average mean temperatures between 1.1°C and 1.9°C projected by 2050 and 2100. Increases in precipitation in both summer and winter, as well as sea level rise in coastal areas are also projected. Sectors including forestry, agriculture and livestock – offer considerable potential for mitigating climate change through carbon sequestration. Natural resource management therefore is a critical link in Uruguay’s efforts to both adapt to and help mitigate climate change.

Coastal wetland flooding, recession of the coastal line and erosion would affect differently the various coastal areas. The risk value for the different scenarios of sea mean level rise, increases rapidly above the growth factor of 0.5 m. The limited studies performed (section 3.12c.1) show that in economic terms, the most vulnerable coastal areas would be those with the highest population density.

Uruguay will lose US$500 million as a consequence of the drought affecting the region for a few months, the South American country's rural producers said 13 March 2018 after a round-table conference with the senators and opposition deputies. Eduardo Blasina, the agronomist, said the producers need adequate resources to overcome the drought affecting the region. Blasina also accused Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez of turning a deaf ear to farmers' issues.

"The government lists a number of measures to say 'look what we have done and still you ask us for more' but the issue is not the number of measures but the impact they have," Blasina said according to local newspaper El Litoral.

On March 1, Uruguay government declared a 90-day agricultural emergency in the drought-affected northern part of the South American country, covering the provinces of Artigas, Salto, Paysandu, Rivera, Tacuarembo, Rio Negro and Durazno. The government has initiated the Agricultural Emergency Fund (FAE), which provides no-interest loans to family farmers, with no more than 500 hectares (1,235.5 acres) of land. The FAE loans can only be obtained through the campesino organizations and only by individuals who don't have an impending balance to pay, stemming from past loans.