Las Heras Webcam – Five Views of a Patagonian Oil Town

The Las Heras Webcam looks across the Plaza del Bicentenario in Las Heras, an oil and railway town on the steppe of Santa Cruz province in Argentine Patagonia. A glass pyramid stands in the middle of the paved square, with a sunken lawn, benches and lamp posts around it, the Argentine flag on tall poles to the left and a playground behind. Past the plaza, low rooftops and warehouses run out to a flat horizon under a very big sky. Four more municipal cameras sit in the tabs: Plaza San Martin, the town entrance roundabout, the Paseo Ferroviario with its old locomotive, and the Plazoleta Nuestro Mate. Together they follow the public spaces of a small Patagonian town through the year, in light that swings from long summer evenings to short winter days.

About Las Heras

Las Heras sits at about 330 meters (1,083 feet) above sea level in the Deseado Department of northern Santa Cruz, 566 kilometers (352 miles) north of the provincial capital, Rio Gallegos. It began as Colonia Las Heras on October 6, 1914, when the Patagonian Railway opened a station here, inland from Puerto Deseado on the Atlantic coast, about 265 kilometers (165 miles) to the east-southeast as the crow flies. The railway was meant to cross the steppe all the way to the Andes. Construction started in 1909, the money stopped in 1914, and Las Heras was left as the end of the line. The town takes its name from Juan Gregorio de Las Heras (1780 to 1866), a general of South American independence who also served as governor of Buenos Aires.

Oil was found in the area in 1932, but extraction only paid off in the 1950s, and the boom that followed from the middle of that decade turned the old railway colony into a municipality. Trains on the Puerto Deseado line kept running until January 1978, when the line closed. Oil and gas have driven the growth since: 6,328 people lived here at the 1991 census, 17,821 in 2010 and about 24,700 in 2022. With Caleta Olivia, 134 kilometers (83 miles) away by road, and Pico Truncado, 80 kilometers (50 miles) away, it forms a triangle of towns in the north of the province.

Each tab on the Las Heras Webcam shows a different corner of town. Plaza San Martin, the main square, appears as checkered paving, a raised monument platform with three flagpoles, trees and a walled lawn. The Paseo Ferroviario camera keeps the railway story in view: an old locomotive stands on a short stretch of track with two guanaco figures beside it, pergolas, a playground and a wide avenue alongside. At the town entrance, a statue on a stone plinth rises from a roundabout ringed by flags and large letters spelling the town’s name, with open steppe behind. The Plazoleta Nuestro Mate has raised lawns, murals and a giant mate gourd on a stepped platform.

Weather and Climate in Las Heras

Las Heras has a cold desert climate, and the cameras show it: the plaza lawns are green, while the steppe beyond the last houses stays brown and bare. Summer, from December to February, brings average highs of about 24 to 25 C (75 to 77 F) and nights around 11 to 12 C (52 to 54 F). Days reach about 15.4 hours around the December solstice, so the plazas stay lit late into the evening. The wind picks up through spring and summer too, and in a 10-year record the average daily peak wind was about 35 km/h (22 mph) from November to January, the windiest stretch of the year.

Winter, from June to August, is cold and short. Average highs sit around 6 C (43 F), nights hover near 0 C (32 F), and the June solstice gives only about 8.2 hours of daylight. Precipitation is scarce in every season, at around 150 millimeters (6 inches) a year. Autumn cools from about 15 C (59 F) by day in April to 10 C (50 F) in May, and spring warms from about 13 C (55 F) in September to 21 C (70 F) in November. In mid-October the trees around the Plaza del Bicentenario and the Paseo Ferroviario were only just coming into leaf.

Things to Do Near Las Heras

In town, Plaza San Martin is the main square, and other landmarks include the Parroquia San Jose parish church and the YPF Cultural Center. The Paseo Ferroviario puts the town’s railway beginnings on show with its old locomotive, and the Laguna Julian Osorio has been planted with yatay palms (Butia yatay).

Further out, a group of workers came across large petrified tree trunks at Canadon Escondido, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Las Heras. The best known fossil site in the region is Bosques Petrificados National Park, roughly 146 kilometers (91 miles) to the south-southeast in a straight line. Araucaria trunks that grew some 150 million years ago lie across its 63,543 hectares (about 157,000 acres), the largest about 3 meters (10 feet) thick and more than 30 meters (98 feet) long, and the park is reached from Ruta Nacional 3 by Ruta Provincial 49. On the coast, Puerto Deseado still has the old station at the other end of the line, opened in 1909 and run as a railway museum since 2003.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Las Heras located?

Las Heras is in the Deseado Department of northern Santa Cruz, in Argentine Patagonia, 134 kilometers (83 miles) by road from Caleta Olivia and 214 kilometers (133 miles) from Comodoro Rivadavia.

What can you see on the Las Heras Webcam?

The main camera shows the Plaza del Bicentenario, with its glass pyramid, lawns, flags and the town behind. The tabs add Plaza San Martin, the town entrance roundabout with its statue and lettering, the Paseo Ferroviario with an old locomotive, and the Plazoleta Nuestro Mate with its giant mate gourd.

What is the weather like in Las Heras?

Dry, with mild summers and cold winters. Summer highs average about 24 to 25 C (75 to 77 F), winter highs about 6 C (43 F) with nights near freezing, and the town gets only around 150 millimeters (6 inches) of precipitation a year.

Is Las Heras in Santa Cruz the same as Las Heras in Mendoza?

No. This camera is in Las Heras, Santa Cruz, in Patagonia. Las Heras in Mendoza province is a separate city in the west of the country.

When was Las Heras founded?

Las Heras dates from October 6, 1914, when it was established as Colonia Las Heras around the station at the inland end of the Patagonian Railway from Puerto Deseado. It became a municipality during the oil boom of the 1950s.

Does the train still run to Las Heras?

Regular trains on the Puerto Deseado line ended in January 1978. In 2016 a limited service using a zorra, a small rail inspection car, was restarted between Pico Truncado and Las Heras.

Source: Municipalidad de Las Heras