IN many parts of the world there are local winds with well known characteristics that are such familiar visitors that they have been given their own special names. Some of them are very well known like, for example, the cold dry mistral which sweeps through the Rhone valley to the Cote d'Azur, and the warm, dry chinook which blows down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains into Wyoming and Montana. But there are others seldom heard of outside their own particular locality.
The bise, for example, is a cold and relatively dry north easterly wind which often blows in France and Switzerland, while the kosava is a ravine wind which occurs on the Danube south east of Belgrade. Further to the east, winter brings the buran, another bitterly cold northeasterly that sweeps across the frozen wastes of Russia, drifting the Siberian snow. The bad-i-sado-bistroz, the "wind of 120 days", is a violent north westerly down slope wind which affects - Afghanistan and adjacent areas each year from May to September; as its name suggests, it is known for its consistency over a long period.
The Mediterranean has a host of local winds. The onente blows from the west, while the tramontana is a dry cold northerly; the gregale is a strong north easterly peculiar to south central regions of that stretch of water, and the same parts are prone to the libeccio, a strong squally south westerly. In summertime, a north westerly wind called the maestro can be experienced on the western shores of the Adriatic.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the norte, as its name implies, is a strong northerly and very often humid wind - which blows mainly in the wintertime on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. The tehuantepecer is found in the same region: is a harsh destructive northerly on the extreme south coast of Mexico, which sweeps southwards into the Gulf of Tehuantepec through deep ravines in the mountains of the Central American Cordillera. Further south the abroholos is a violent squall that occurs mainly between May and August on the Brazilian coast, and in Argentina and Uruguay, a severe storm, sometimes accompanied by rain, thunder and lighting is called a pampero.
The helm wind is nearer home. It is a strong north easterly that blows down the western slope of the Cross Fell mountain range in Cumbria in England; its greatest frequency is in late winter and spring, and it is remarkable for its extreme gustiness and for the "helm bar", a roll of cloud that marks its western boundary.