Montevideo is overcast and damp this morning at 7°C/44°F, feeling more like 4°C/38°F with the wind, and the day tops out at just 15°C/59°F under light drizzle. Punta del Este is a touch milder on paper — a high near 18°C/64°F — but starts even colder, at 6°C/43°F with a wind chill of 2°C/36°F. Humidity is sitting above 90% in both cities, so it will feel greyer and clammier than the numbers suggest.

The bigger story is Thursday. Local meteorologist José Serra told Montevideo Portal the annual Santa Rosa storm system arrives Aug. 27, bringing rain and thunderstorms, some of them strong, with 10 to 30 millimeters of accumulation, gusty winds and a chance of hail. Temperatures will stay unusually mild for winter through the front — Serra put Thursday's average high near 17°C — before conditions dry out and cool again for the weekend.

Inumet had no active weather advisory or warning in effect as of this morning, and the consolidated model data broadly agrees with Serra on timing: rain moving in Wednesday night into Thursday, tapering by Friday, with highs settling back into the low 50s Fahrenheit (11-13°C) for the following several days.

Bank República (BROU) confirmed that four armed men who raided its Pando branch on Monday afternoon got away with 10 million pesos, US$70,000 and 90,000 euros — a haul worth roughly $420,000 at current exchange rates, according to bank general manager Mariela Espino. The robbery lasted just over a minute.

The gunmen struck a security guard and took his firearm before fleeing in a luxury sedan, which they later crashed; they then stole a second vehicle from a family to complete their getaway. No customers or staff were seriously hurt, and no arrests have been made as the case moves to prosecutors.

President Yamandú Orsi said Interior Minister Carlos Negro briefed him the night of the Pando robbery, and he pushed back on the idea that the raid signals a new criminal "modality," or method, taking hold. Speaking at an independence-day event in Florida, Orsi said police were working several leads and voiced cautious optimism the case can be solved.

Orsi also addressed an opposition complaint against Defense Minister Sandra Lazo over her cancellation of the Cardama shipyard (astillero) contract for two offshore patrol vessels, saying that although he had not reviewed the complaint's contents, his support for Lazo "is absolute."

American Airlines will resume its seasonal nonstop service between Carrasco International Airport and Miami on Dec. 3, again making it the only carrier flying direct between Uruguay and the United States. Uruguay's Tourism Ministry said the daily schedule runs through March 2, 2027 — about three weeks longer than last season — before dropping to three flights a week (Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays) until the route closes for the season on March 28.

The flights use a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with business, premium economy and economy cabins, departing Montevideo at 10:30 p.m. and arriving in Miami at 5:45 a.m., with the return leg overnight the other way.

Uruguay's airport-security agency is reformulating its strategy for Carrasco International, with the shift pointing toward greater use of private contractors for screening and access-control work, according to Montevideo Portal.

Uruguay's central bank pegged the dollar at 40.18 pesos and the euro at 46.86 pesos in Monday's official fixing, while commercial cambios (exchange houses) were quoting roughly 39 to 41.45 pesos per dollar and 44.5 to 49.5 per euro this morning. Across the river, the official Argentine rate sat near 1,511.5 pesos per dollar and the Brazilian real near 5.15 per dollar.

That combination keeps the Uruguayan peso relatively strong against both neighboring currencies, which continues to make quick shopping or medical-tourism trips to Argentina or southern Brazil comparatively cheap for anyone earning or holding dollars in Uruguay.

Defense Minister Sandra Lazo defended her decision to cancel the government's contract with Spanish shipbuilder Cardama for two offshore patrol vessels, telling a parliamentary investigative committee after a six-hour session that the move was fully justified because irregularities were found in the financial guarantees the company had submitted.

Lazo said the cancellation followed a breakdown of trust after officials discovered the documentation contained false guarantees, and that Cardama sent a replacement guarantee on the very day the cancellation was announced — one with even more inconsistencies. An opposition senator on the committee separately criticized the Spanish businessman behind the shipyard for refusing to appear before Parliament.

A reform tucked into the government's budget review (Rendición de Cuentas) would give Uruguay's National Institute of Animal Welfare, INBA, its own financing separate from the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries. INBA president Esteban Vieta said the change matters because the agency currently has no real way to enforce collection of animal-cruelty fines, so payment is effectively voluntary.

Vieta said INBA receives 400 to 550 complaints a month nationwide but has only three staff covering 17 interior departments, against five more covering Montevideo and Canelones; the reform would let it fund a dedicated officer in each department.