page_title: Pampas
section_title: Climates
hierarchical_section_title: Pampas / Climates
caption_attribution_description: English: Coxilhas (hills covered by grasslands) in Morro Redondo, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil Español: Cuchillas (colinas cubiertas por praderas) en Morro Redondo, estado de Río Grande del Sur, Brasil Português: Coxilhas (colinas cobertas por campos) em Morro Redondo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil
context_page_description: The Pampas are fertile South American lowlands that cover more than 1,200,000 km2 and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and Córdoba; all of Uruguay; and Brazil's southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul. The vast plains are a natural region, interrupted only by the low Ventana and Tandil hills, near Bahía Blanca and Tandil, with a height of 1,300 m and 500 m, respectively.
  The climate is temperate, with precipitation of 600 to 1,200 mm that is more or less evenly distributed through the year, making the soils appropriate for agriculture. The area is also one of the distinct physiography provinces of the larger Paraná-Paraguay Plain division.
context_section_description: The climate of the Pampas is generally temperate, gradually giving way to a more subtropical climate in the north and to a semiarid climate on the western fringes (like San Luis Province and western La Pampa Province). Summer temperatures are more uniform than winter temperatures, generally ranging from 28 to 33 °C (82 to 91 °F) during the day. However, most cities in the Pampas occasionally have high temperatures that push 38 °C (100 °F), as occurs when a warm, dry, northerly wind blows from southern Brazil. Autumn arrives gradually in March, and peaks in April and May. In April, highs range from 20 to 25 °C (68 to 77 °F) and lows from 9 to 13 °C (48 to 55 °F). The first frosts arrive in mid-April in the south, and in late May or early June in the north.
  Winters are generally mild, but cold waves often occur. Normal temperatures range from 12 to 19 °C (54 to 66 °F) during the day, and from 1 to 6 °C (34 to 43 °F) at night. With strong northerly winds, days of over 25 °C (77 °F) can be recorded almost everywhere, and during cold waves, high temperatures can be only 6 °C (43 °F). Frost occurs everywhere in the Pampas, but it is much more frequent in the southwest than around the Parana and Uruguay Rivers. Temperatures under −5 °C (23 °F) can occur everywhere, but values of  −10 °C (14 °F) or lower are confined to the south and west. Snow never falls in the northernmost third and is rare and light elsewhere, except for exceptional events in which depths have reached 30 cm (12 in).
  Springs are very variable; it is warmer than fall in most areas (especially in the west) but significantly colder along the Atlantic. Violent storms are more common as well as wide temperature variations: days of 35 °C (95 °F) can give way to nights of under 5 °C (41 °F) or even frost, all within only a few days.
  Precipitation ranges from 1,200 mm (47 in) in the northeast, to about 500 mm (20 in) in the southern and western edges. In the west, it is highly seasonal, with some places recording averages of 120 mm (4.7 in) monthly in the summer, and only 20 millimetres (0.8 in) monthly in the winter. The eastern areas have small peaks in the fall and in the spring, with relatively rainy summers and winters that are only slightly drier. However, where summer rain falls as short, heavy storms, winter rain falls mostly as cold drizzle and so the amount of rainy days is fairly constant. Very intense thunderstorms are common in the spring and summer, and it has among the most frequent lightning and highest convective cloud tops in the world. The severe thunderstorms produce intense hailstorms, and both floods and flash floods, as well as the most consistently active tornado region outside the central and southeastern US.
caption: Coxilhas (hills covered by grasslands) in Morro Redondo, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil.
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