Foehn wind

The name Foehn (German: Föhn, pronounced [ˈføːn]) arose in the Alpine region. Originating from Latin (ventus) favonius, a mild west wind of which Favonius was the Roman personification[7] and probably transmitted by Romansh: favuogn or just fuogn, the term was adopted as Old High German: phōnno. In the Southern Alps, the phenomenon is known as Föhn but also Italian: favonio and fen in Serbo-Croatian and Slovene. The German word Föhn (pronounced the same way) also means 'hairdryer', while the word Fön is a genericized trademark today owned by AEG.[8] The form phon is used in French-speaking parts of Switzerland as well as in Italy.

The name Föhn was originally used to refer to the south wind which blows during the winter months and brings thaw conditions to the northern side of the Alps. Because Föhn later became a generic term that was extended to other mountain ranges around the world that experience similar phenomena, the name "Alpine föhn" (Alpenföhn) was coined for the Föhns of the Alpine region.[9]

The warm moist air from northern Italy is blocked on the windward side, loses much of its water vapour content, and descends on the French plateau and valley of the Mont-Cenis range in the Maurienne valley

There are four known causes of the Foehn warming and drying effect.[1] These mechanisms often act together, with their contributions varying depending on the size and shape of the mountain barrier and on the meteorological conditions, such as the upstream wind speed, temperature and humidity.

Condensation and precipitation

When winds blow over elevated terrain, air forced upwards expands and cools due to the decrease in pressure with height. Since colder air can hold less water vapour, moisture condenses to form clouds and precipitates as rain or snow on the mountain's upwind slopes. The change of state from vapour to liquid water releases latent heat energy which heats the air, partially countering the cooling that occurs as the air rises. The subsequent removal of moisture as precipitation renders this heat gain by the air irreversible, leading to the warm, dry, Foehn conditions as the air descends in the mountain's lee. This mechanism has become a popular textbook example of atmospheric thermodynamics. However, the common occurrence of 'dry' Foehn events, where there is no precipitation, implies there must be other mechanisms.

Rotor cloud revealing overturning and turbulence above the lee slopes of the Antarctic Peninsula during a westerly Foehn event.

Winds of this type are also called "snow-eaters" for their ability to make snow and ice melt or sublimate rapidly. This is a result not only of the warmth of Foehn air, but also its low relative humidity. Accordingly, Foehn winds are known to contribute to the disintegration of ice shelves in the polar regions.[10]

Foehn winds are notorious among mountaineers in the Alps, especially those climbing the Eiger, for whom the winds add further difficulty in ascending an already difficult peak.

They are also associated with the rapid spread of wildfires, making some regions which experience these winds particularly fire-prone.

Anecdotally, residents in areas of frequent Foehn winds have reported experiencing a variety of illnesses ranging from migraines to psychosis. The first clinical review of these effects was published by the Austrian physician Anton Czermak in the 19th century.[11] A study by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München found that suicide and accidents increased by 10 percent during Foehn winds in Central Europe. The causation of Föhnkrankheit (English: Foehn-sickness) is unproven. Labels for preparations of aspirin combined with caffeine, codeine and the like will sometimes include Föhnkrankheit amongst the indications.[12] Evidence for effects from Chinook winds remain anecdotal.

In some regions, Foehn winds are associated with causing circulatory problems, headaches, or similar ailments.[13] Researchers have found, however, the Foehn wind's warm temperature to be beneficial to humans in most situations, and have theorised that the reported negative effects may be a result of secondary factors, such as changes in the electrical field or in the ion state of the atmosphere, the wind's relatively low humidity, or the generally unpleasant sensation of being in an environment with strong and gusty winds.[13]

Regionally, these winds are known by many different names. These include:

in Africa

• Bergwind in South Africa

in the Americas

• The Brookings Effect on the southwestern coast of Oregon, also known as the Chetco Effect.
• Chinook winds east of the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Range in the United States and Canada, and north, east and west of the Chugach Mountains of Alaska, United States
• Foehn winds in the foothills of the southern Appalachian mountains,[14] which can be unusual compared to other Foehn winds in that the relative humidity typically changes little due to the increased moisture in the source air mass[15]
• The Santa Ana winds of southern California, including the Sundowner winds of Santa Barbara, are in some ways similar to the Föhn, but originate in dry deserts as a katabatic wind.
• Puelche wind in Chile
• Suêtes on the west coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Wreckhouse winds in the southwest corner of the island of Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
• Zonda winds in Argentina

in Antarctica

• Föhn wall on Signy Island, South Orkneys

in Asia

• Garmesh, Garmij, Garmbaad (lit. transl. Warm wind): (Persian: گرمباد, Gilaki: گرمش) in Gilan region (near the Alborz) in the south west of Caspian Sea in Iran.
• In winter, a Foehn effect occurs in the West Azerbaijan province, Iran (around Lake Urmia) as manifested by the province's dry winters relative to those in the windward part of the region (Northern Iraq or Kurdistan Region and Hakkâri Province in Turkey). For example, the winter rainfall of Urmia and Salmas in Iranian Azerbaijan is much lower than Batifa and Soran in Iraqi Kurdistan, and Hakkâri in the Hakkâri Province, which are roughly on the same latitude but are on the windward side of the Zagros mountains.
• Loo in Indo-Gangetic Plain
• Warm Braw in the Schouten Islands north of West Papua, Indonesia.[16]
• Wuhan in China is famously known as one of the Three Furnaces on account of its extremely hot weather in summer resulting from the adiabatic warming effect created by mountains further south.
• Laos wind (Vietnamese: gió Lào), hot-dry west wind (Vietnamese: gió tây khô nóng) in northern and central Vietnam.

in Europe

Foehn clouds upon the Karawanken mountain range, Carinthia, Austria

Foehn clouds over La Palma, Spain

• Favonio in Ticino and north-western Italy due to western and northern winds crossing the Alps (mostly in winter)
• Garbino in the Adriatic coast of Italy due to south-western winds crossing the Apennine Mountains (mostly in fall and winter)
• Fen in northwest Slovenia
• Fønvind in South Norway, in particular Central Norway, resulting in extreme winter warming, including Scandinavia's warmest winter temperature in Sunndalsøra.
• Fogony in the Catalan Pyrenees
• Föhn or Foehn in Austria, southern Germany, Switzerland, France and Liechtenstein
• Föhn in Ostrobothnia and Western Lapland in Finland as moist air crosses Scandinavian Mountains and dries up.
• Halny in the Carpathian Mountains, Poland (Central Europe)
• The Helm Wind, on the Pennines in the Eden Valley, Cumbria, England
• Hnjúkaþeyr in Icelandic
• Lodos wind, causing warm temperatures in the leeward side of mountains in the mild-winter climate of the Aegean Sea, Greece and western Turkey, as well as unusually mild temperatures in the cool or moderately cold winter climates north of the Marmara Sea, such as Istanbul, Adapazarı and Zonguldak.
• Livas wind in the Thessalian plain, Boeotia plain, Plain of Thessaloniki, Elefsina and Athens in Greece
• Košava (Koshava) wind in Serbia that blows along the Danube River[17][18]
• Nortada in Cascais, and most notoriously in Guincho Beach, making it one of the best windsurfing spots in Europe
• Ponentà in Valencia (eastern Spain)
• Terral in Málaga (southern Spain)
• Vântul Mare in the Carpathian Mountains, Romania
• Viento del Sur (Southern Wind) or Hego haizea in Basque in the Cantabrian region (northern Spain)

in Oceania

• The Great Dividing foehn in southeast Australia, leeward of the Great Dividing Range, observed in the coastal plains of New South Wales, and also in eastern Victoria and eastern Tasmania.[19]
• The Nor'wester in Hawkes Bay, Canterbury, and Otago, New Zealand[20]

• The Foehn was mentioned by Queen's lead guitarist Brian May while talking about the band's grim Munich recording studio experience in 1982.[21]
• The foehn is attributed by the narrator of Jens Bjørneboe's 1966 novel Frihetens øyeblikk (Moment of Freedom) as the traditional cause of occasional unprovoked murders in a small Alpine town.[22]
• "Foehn" is the last word in A Nest of Ninnies, a 1969 novel by John Ashbery and James Schuyler. Ashbery claimed that he and Schuyler chose this particular word because "people, if they bothered to, would have to open the dictionary to find out what the last word in the novel meant".[23]
• Fønfjord, meaning "Foehn Fjord", was named by Arctic explorer Carl Ryder after the powerful Foehn wind gusts blowing during the first exploration of the fjord in August 1891.[24]

• 
  Foehn over Carretera Punta de Jandía in Morro Jable, Pájara, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands
• 
  Dissolving clouds from Foehn wind over the Cumbre Nueva in El Paso, La Palma, Canary Island
• 
  Foehn over Llano del Jable
• 
  Foehn can be initiated when deep low-pressure systems move into Europe, drawing moist Mediterranean air over the Alps.

• Alpine climate
• Anabatic wind
• Chinook wind
• Föhn cloud
• Katabatic winds
• Lee wave
• Meteorology

• McKnight, TL & Hess, Darrel (2000). "Foehn/Chinook Winds". In Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation, p. 132. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-020263-0.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Foehn wind.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Föhn".

• Photo of Föhnmauer The strong clouds at the mountain ridges where the Föhn winds form are called Föhnmauer (Föhn wall).
• Illustration
• Movie of a Föhn situation in the Swiss Alps
• East Scotland warmth due to Foehn Effect
• Foehn chart provided by meteomedia/meteocentrale.ch