Winds of the World

Our second Levante wind in 3 weeks is beginning to blow itself out.   All should be calm (for a while at least) by the middle of this week.

Hattie, who commented on the previous post and mentioned the Fohn, got me thinking about the different winds.   When I lived in Arabia we had one, the Khamsin, which if you were out in the desert, would sandblast the paint of your car.   So here, thanks to Wikipaedia, is some information on other winds.  



Gone with the Loo

There are dozens of names for winds that blow through specific regions. Some, like the noreasters that blow from the northeast down the East Coast, are not creatively named. Here are some others:

barber: cold, moisture-laden wind that freezes on contact with hair and beards.
 

brickfielder: hot, dry wind that carries enormous amounts of red dust from the deserts of southern Australia.
 

Cape Doctor: cold, dry wind from the southeast that sanitizes the city of Cape Town, South Africa.
 

chinook: warming wind rushing eastward down the Rocky Mountains of Canada and the U.S.
 

Coromuel: strong, warm wind that blows from afternoon to early morning through La Paz, Baja California, Mexico. The wind was named after British sailor Samuel Cromwell, whose name the locals could not pronounce.
 

Hawk: strong, cool breeze blowing westward through Chicago from Lake Michigan.
 

levant: strong winds that blow from the Atlantic Ocean through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar in the western Mediterranean Sea. The Levant, the Mideast region in the eastern Mediterranean, does not experience the levant.
 

Loo: strong, hot summer wind that blows across northern India from the arid deserts to the west, and is only stopped by the arrival of the monsoon. The Loo is such a powerful ecological and cultural force that ice creams and sherbets are consumed to combat Loo-induced fatigue.
 

November witch: hurricane-force winds that develop as cold Arctic air masses meet warm air from the Gulf over the Great Lakes.
 

Pembrokeshire Dangler: area where prevailing winds converge and cause a line of cold rain and snow to dangle north-south across the Irish Sea.
 

Santa Anas: hot, dry winds that blow from the deserts and mountains of inland California to the coast. Santa Anas are often responsible for spreading Southern Californias destructive wildfires, earning them the nickname murder winds.
 

sirocco: wind that reaches hurricane speeds as it crosses the Mediterranean Sea to southern Europe. Siroccos carry tons of dust and sand throughout northern Africa, and contribute to wet weather as they reach Europe.
 

squamish: fast-moving, cold wind that rushes down the narrow fjords of British Columbia, Canada. 

And the others I came across

the Haboob, a violent wind which raises sand storms, especially in N. Africa.

the Mistral, a violent dry, cold N.W. wind along the Spanish and French coast.

Do you have a strong, specially named, wind in your area?