Villa Mercedes | |
|---|---|
 Plaza principal de Villa Mercedes | |
  Villa Mercedes Location of Villa Mercedes in Argentina | |
| Coordinates:33°40′S65°28′W / 33.667°S 65.467°W /-33.667; -65.467 | |
| Country |  Argentina |
| Province |  San Luis |
| Department | General Pedernera |
| Population (2010 census) | |
• Total | 111,391 |
| Time zone | UTC−3 (ART) |
| CPA base | D5730 |
| Dialing code | +54 2657 |
Villa Mercedes is a city in theprovince ofSan Luis, Argentina. It lies on the center-east of the province, on the left-hand banks of theQuinto River, 32 km from the border withCórdoba, onNational Route 148, and near the intersection of National Routes8 and7. National Route 7 links the city to the provincial capitalSan Luis, 90 km to the north-west. It had 96,781 inhabitants during the 2001census[INDEC].
The city was founded by GovernorJusto Daract on or around December 1, 1856, asFortín Constitucional, a mixed civilian-militaryfort, to protect the territory againstattacks by theRanquel aboriginal tribes. The original name was changed in 1861 to Villa Mercedes by decision of the residents, who had adopted the Virgin of Mercy (Virgen de las Mercedes) as their patron.
Villa Mercedes grew quickly after a railway line fromVilla María on theCentral Argentine line betweenRosario andCórdoba, reached the town in 1875. Built by the State-owned companyFerrocarril Andino, the line was extended toSan Juan in 1885 viaSan Luis andMendoza. The line from Villa Mercedes to Mendoza would become the middle section of the route fromBuenos Aires and was bought by theArgentine Great Western Railway in 1887 and later became part of theBuenos Aires and Pacific Railway network.
Villa Mercedes was officially declared a city in 1896. It is now the second largest in San Luis, and an industrial and educational center, hosting a branch of theNational University of San Luis.
Villa Mercedes has a dry winterhumid subtropical climate (KöppenCwa), typical from the geographic center of Argentina. Summer is warm to hot with frequent thunderstorms, whereas winter is dry and prone to heavy frosts. Snowfall is unusual but still more common than in Eastern Argentina, and occasionally it can stay on the ground for a couple of days, for example, during theJuly 2007 Argentine winter storm, when the temperature hit -16.8 °C,[1] the lowest on record for the city.
| Climate data for Villa Mercedes INTA (1981–2010, extremes 1968–2013) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 41.2 (106.2) | 41.7 (107.1) | 37.7 (99.9) | 35.4 (95.7) | 33.0 (91.4) | 30.8 (87.4) | 33.9 (93.0) | 37.1 (98.8) | 38.0 (100.4) | 42.1 (107.8) | 39.6 (103.3) | 42.7 (108.9) | 42.7 (108.9) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 29.9 (85.8) | 29.1 (84.4) | 27.0 (80.6) | 23.4 (74.1) | 20.0 (68.0) | 17.0 (62.6) | 16.5 (61.7) | 19.0 (66.2) | 21.2 (70.2) | 24.4 (75.9) | 27.0 (80.6) | 29.2 (84.6) | 23.7 (74.7) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 22.5 (72.5) | 21.4 (70.5) | 19.4 (66.9) | 15.2 (59.4) | 11.4 (52.5) | 8.1 (46.6) | 7.3 (45.1) | 9.5 (49.1) | 12.3 (54.1) | 16.4 (61.5) | 19.3 (66.7) | 21.8 (71.2) | 15.4 (59.7) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 14.9 (58.8) | 13.9 (57.0) | 12.3 (54.1) | 7.8 (46.0) | 3.7 (38.7) | 0.2 (32.4) | −0.9 (30.4) | 0.8 (33.4) | 3.7 (38.7) | 8.2 (46.8) | 11.2 (52.2) | 14.0 (57.2) | 7.5 (45.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 2.9 (37.2) | 1.2 (34.2) | −2.2 (28.0) | −6.9 (19.6) | −10.5 (13.1) | −12.5 (9.5) | −16.8 (1.8) | −14.8 (5.4) | −12.3 (9.9) | −6.4 (20.5) | −6.0 (21.2) | 0.1 (32.2) | −16.8 (1.8) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 120.2 (4.73) | 90.4 (3.56) | 86.0 (3.39) | 54.4 (2.14) | 26.4 (1.04) | 6.7 (0.26) | 16.3 (0.64) | 13.4 (0.53) | 32.2 (1.27) | 49.5 (1.95) | 76.6 (3.02) | 117.0 (4.61) | 689.1 (27.13) |
| Average snowy days | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 65.6 | 69.8 | 74.0 | 73.0 | 74.7 | 73.0 | 68.8 | 61.2 | 58.7 | 60.8 | 59.4 | 63.0 | 66.8 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 293.0 | 255.4 | 226.9 | 191.4 | 167.6 | 159.0 | 188.1 | 206.1 | 226.8 | 247.5 | 281.1 | 307.4 | 2,750.3 |
| Source 1:Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria[2] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Atlas Bioclimático de Argentina UNLP (snowfall data)[3] | |||||||||||||
It is served byVilla Reynolds Airport.
H.R.Stones,British Railways in Argentina 1860-1948, P.E.Waters & Associates, Bromley, Kent, England, 1993.
Media related toVilla Mercedes at Wikimedia Commons