Argentina: Climate & Natural Resources

Argentina's great north-south extent and dramatic range in elevation give it one of the most varied climates in the Americas. Meteorologists generally group its weather into four broad types, warm, moderate, arid, and cold, shaped mainly by latitude, altitude, and relief, with arid and cold conditions predominating across the west and south and warmer, more humid conditions across the center and north. Roughly two-thirds of the country is classified as arid or semi-arid despite this diversity.

In the north, the Gran Chaco and the Mesopotamian provinces of Misiones, Corrientes, and Entre Ríos see hot, humid, subtropical conditions with abundant rainfall through most of the year. The central Pampas, Argentina's agricultural heartland, experience hot, stormy summers and cooler, drier winters on flat, poorly drained grassland that is prone to flooding. Patagonia, in the south, is markedly drier and windier, with one of the steepest precipitation gradients in the world: the Andes block moisture arriving from the Pacific, leaving the Patagonian steppe to average only about 200 millimeters of rain a year while the Andean forests just to the west receive far more.

These regional contrasts underpin Argentina's natural-resource base. The thick, fertile loess soils of the Humid Pampa have long supported extensive grain cultivation and cattle ranching, historically ranking Argentina among the world's leading agricultural exporters. Forests cover parts of the subtropical northeast and the Patagonian Andes, and the country's own name, derived from the Latin argentum, or silver, recalls the mineral wealth early Spanish explorers hoped to find in the region.