Where do the mistral winds originate?
mistral, Italian maestrale, cold and dry strong wind in southern France that blows down from the north along the lower Rhône River valley toward the Mediterranean Sea.
What causes the mistral wind?
It is caused by a thermal depression over the interior of Provence (The Var and Alpes de Haute-Provence), created when the land is overheated. This creates a flow of air from the north toward the east of Provence. This wind is frequently cancelled out close to the coast by the breezes from the sea.
How is mistral formed?
How the mistral is formed. The mistral blows when there is an area of high pressure in the Bay of Biscay and an area of low pressure around the Gulf of Genoa. The air is sucked from the high pressure area to the low pressure area, causing cold air from the north to be blown down to the Mediterranean.
What is the name of the North African wind that blows into the southern Mediterranean basin?
The sirocco
The sirocco is produced on the east sides of low-pressure centres that travel eastward over the southern Mediterranean. It originates over North Africa as a dry wind and picks up moisture as it crosses the Mediterranean.
Which European country has mistral wind?
This is the mistral of southern France, the infamous wind of Provence. As a region of rolling hills and valleys, Provence is always windy. One of the 32 winds, each named and recognized as an anticipated visitor, is blowing at any time and from any imaginable direction.
What causes Sundowner winds?
Sundowner winds blow when a region of high pressure is directly north of the area’s east–west oriented coast. The winds are strongest when what is known as a pressure gradient forms perpendicular to the axis of the Santa Ynez Mountains, which rise directly behind Santa Barbara.
Why is it so windy in Marseille?
The wind is created as air sucks through the gap between low and high-pressure fronts. The wind pulls in the air from the foothills of the Alps and continues down the river valleys towards the sea—it’s usually Marseille and St Tropez that can be most harshly hit by wind from the westerly direction.
What is mistral good for?
The Mistral is also great for preventing grape rot; thanks to the drying properties of the wind, even after a rain, the vines don’t stay damp for long, as the moisture gets taken care of by the “breeze.”
What is Sirocco called in Spain?
With a longer trajectory, the Sirocco picks up much moisture because of its high temperature, and reaches Spain (known as Leveche, Solano, Jaloque or Xaloque), Portugal as Xaroco, France as Marin, Malta, Sicily, southern Italy as Scirocco, and Croatia as Jugo.
Which continent has winds named Berg?
South African
Berg wind (from Afrikaans berg “mountain” + wind “wind”, i.e. a mountain wind) is the South African name for a katabatic wind: a hot dry wind blowing down the Great Escarpment from the high central plateau to the coast.
Does the mistral make people crazy?
Lastly there is the Mistral, a wind that makes you feel intensely irritated, turns people into an awful drivers and chills you to the bone in winter, even when the actual temperatures are not that low.
Is Chinook a local wind?
Detailed Solution. Chinook is the warm and dry local wind blowing on the leeward side or eastern side of Rockies (Prairies). Chinook is more common in winter and early spring from Colorado to British Columbia in Canada. The winds after descending through eastern slopes of the Rockies have warmed adiabatically.