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fohn or foehn or föhn (FAYN, FOEN) - n., a warm dry wind that blows down the north side of the Alps; any similar warm dry wind blowing down a mountain.
It is a rain-shadow wind -- after the moist Mediterranean air drops its rain on the windward slopes, the air undergoes adiabatic warming on the leeward slopes, and falls down into the valleys. Fohn winds can raise the temperatures by quite a lot (up to 14 °C/25 °F) in minutes. From German Föhn, originally an Alpine dialect word, from Old High German phōnno/phonno, from Vulgar Latin *faōnius, alteration of Latin favōnius, west wind, from Favōnius, a Roman wind god.
And that wraps up the fifth week of short obscure words learned from Words With Friends solo mode. Back next week with ... another theme week, one I've been waiting on for a while.
---L.
It is a rain-shadow wind -- after the moist Mediterranean air drops its rain on the windward slopes, the air undergoes adiabatic warming on the leeward slopes, and falls down into the valleys. Fohn winds can raise the temperatures by quite a lot (up to 14 °C/25 °F) in minutes. From German Föhn, originally an Alpine dialect word, from Old High German phōnno/phonno, from Vulgar Latin *faōnius, alteration of Latin favōnius, west wind, from Favōnius, a Roman wind god.
And that wraps up the fifth week of short obscure words learned from Words With Friends solo mode. Back next week with ... another theme week, one I've been waiting on for a while.
---L.
