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Down Slope Winds

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.

More Glossary Terms:

• Dew
• Dew Point
• Diurnal
• Divergence
• Doppler Radar

• Downburst
• Drifting Snow
• Drought
• Dry Line
• Dust Devil