Typically warm and dry, occur in many parts of the world where mountains stand in the path of strong air currents. Dry air descending in elevation warms to a higher temperature than air at the surface. In the European Alps they are known as the foehn. The foehn has other names in other places: zonda in Argentina, halny wiatr in Poland, koembang in Java, and Santa Ana in California. In the Rocky Mountains, where warm, dry down slope winds can melt a foot of snow in less than an hour, they are called the Chinook--after Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, where the winds originate.