Uruguay belongs to the second most prone region of the world to the occurrence of severe convective storms, which also includes the south of Brazil, north-eastern Argentina and part of Paraguay; and to the region of South America that presents the highest frequency of occurrence of intense cyclogenesis events. Both meteorological processes produce high winds in the country. In spite of its strength, the last study at national level of high winds in the whole country had been conducted more than 30 years ago, during the development of the national wind code still in use. The installation along the last years of a network of automatic meteorological stations that measure continuously with a good temporal resolution, geographical distribution and data quality offered adequate information to start a characterization and new analysis of these events. The analysis of their data clearly showed that most high wind events (defined as those with wind gust speeds at 45m height ≥ 22.2m/s) are non-synoptic and usually occur during severe convective activity. Higher winds and more frequent high wind events are found to the northwest of Uruguay. On the other hand, around 70% of the high wind events occur during spring and summer.
