Salta is a city in northwestern Argentina and the capital city of the eponymous province, situated at the foothills of the Andes mountains. It has more than 464,000 inhabitants as of the 2001 census , making it Argentina's 8th largest city. The city is located in the Lerma Valley, 1,152 meters above sea level. The weather is warm and dry, with annual averages of 756 mm of rainfall and an average temperature of 16.4 °C (20.4 °C in summer, 10.8 °C in winter). January and February are the months with greatest rainfall. During the spring, Salta is occasionally plagued by severe, week long dust storms.