Desert Fishes Council
34th Annual Meeting
San Luis Potosí, SLP, México
The City of San Luis Potosi
In March 1592, the wealthy mines of San Pedro were discovered and as there was no water in the mountains surrounding them, the workers settled in the San Luis Potosi valley. The surge was the origin for the town of San Luis, mines of Potosi, that was the name given then, in November 3, 1592. The name of San Luis was given to honor Louis, king of France, the mountain of Potosi in Bolivia gave it its second name. The city grew fast and in 1531 it was in wealth and importance the third city of the colony. The city title was given in 1556, confirmed by king Felipe IV of Spain in 1658.
Location
The state San Luis Potosi is situated in the central part of the Republic of Mexico in between parallels 21°11' and 24°34' of north latitude and 98°23' and 102°14' of west longitude. The Tropic of cancer crosses the state it in the northern zone. San Luis Potosi territory, irregularly shaped, extend two thirds into the Mexican plateau.
The other fractions of it's extension are located in the Eastern Mother Ridge and the lowland plains of the gulf of Mexico. The state has a total surface of 62,848 square kilometers, which account for 3.2% of Mexico's total surface. San Luis Potosi is neighbor of nine states; to the north with Coahuila; Northeast Nuevo León and Tamaulipas; East with Veracruz, south with Guanajuato, Querétaro and Hidalgo; Southwest with Jalisco and west with Zacatecas.
The state is well connected with the most important points of Mexico. You can reach San Luis Potosi by road, using highway 57 México-Piedras Negras, highway 70 Tampico-Barra de Navidad, highway 49 San Luis Potosi-Torreon and highway 85 México-Nuevo Laredo.
San Luis Potosi city counts with an international airport with two runaways, hangars, garage, and plane renting facilities. Commercial routes include flights from Mexico city, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Houston and San Antonio.
Because of it's geographical characteristics, the state is divided in four regions; the Huasteca, Middle Zone, Center Zone and the high Plateau, this last the larger, covering two thirds of the state surface. the line of Tropic of cancer crosses the state in its northern extension.
The topography of San Luis Potosi resembles a huge ladder climbing from the Huasteca zone, belonging to the coast plains of the Gulf of Mexico to the Center Plateau, with an average altitude of 1,700 meters over sea level.
This last step is known as the High Plateau, which could be described like a series of wide plains interrupted by step ridges, which form part of the Eastern Mother ridge. The average altitude of these mountains is 2,000 meters over sea level and show a general orientation south-north. Some of these mountain chains get names like San Luis, San Miguelito, Venado, Ipoa and Catorce, where the highest point in the state is found, the so called Cerro Grande, which reaches to 3,180 meters over sea level.
Weather
The weather in the state shows striking contrasts from rainy and warm in the Huasteca to cold and arid in the High Plateau, enclaved in the southern part of the Chihuahuan desert. The Eastern Mother ridge is a main factor in this weather diversity, as it forms an enormous barrier stopping the atmospheric humidity and reducing the rains in the High Plateau; Nevertheless, there is a rainy season starting in May and ending in November. The average annual temperature is between 18°c to 20°c. with a average maximum of 25.7°c and a minimum of 10.6°c. The air is clean, you can feel cold in the shade and the sun rays are very hot. It could be a great variation of temperature during the day and night and it could be specially warm in the afternoon, the nights are generally cool, in the summer with an average temperature of 24°c., with lower temperatures to be expected in the Autumn and Winter.