Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Sketch of the generation of katabatic winds in Antarctica. A katabatic wind originates from radiational cooling of air atop a plateau, a mountain, glacier, or even a hill. Since the density of air is inversely proportional to temperature, the air will flow downwards, warming approximately adiabatically as it descends. The temperature of the air ...
The Santa Anas are katabatic winds (Greek for "flowing downhill") arising in higher altitudes and blowing down towards sea level. [7] The National Weather Service defines Santa Ana winds as "a weather condition [in southern California] in which strong, hot, dust-bearing winds descend to the Pacific Coast around Los Angeles from inland desert regions".
An anabatic wind, from the Greek anabatos, verbal of anabainein meaning "moving upward", is a warm wind which blows up a steep slope or mountain side, driven by heating of the slope through insolation. [1] [2] It is also known as upslope flow. These winds typically occur during the daytime in calm sunny weather.
Diurnal wind system variation in the Appalachian mountain range. Mountain and valley breezes form through a process similar to sea and land breezes. During the day, the sun heats up mountain air rapidly while the valley remains relatively cooler. Convection causes it to rise, causing a valley breeze. At night, the process is reversed.
katabatic wind. Also catabatic wind, drainage wind, or fall wind. A local wind that carries cold, high-density air from a higher elevation downslope under the force of gravity as a result of the radiative cooling of the upland ground surface at night, usually at speeds on the order of 10 kn (19 km/h) or less but occasionally at much higher speeds.
Surface temperature inversion is typical of polar environments and leads to the katabatic wind phenomenon. The vertical temperature structure of polar environments tends to be more complex than in mid-latitude or tropical climates.
It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of its moisture on windward slopes (see orographic lift). As a consequence of the different adiabatic lapse rates of moist and dry air, the air on the leeward slopes becomes warmer than equivalent elevations on the windward slopes.
The dry adiabatic lapse rate (for unsaturated air) is 3 °C (5.4 °F) per 1,000 vertical feet (300 m). The moist adiabatic lapse rate varies from 1.1 to 2.8 °C (2.0 to 5.0 °F) per 1,000 vertical feet (300 m). The combination of moisture and temperature determine the stability of the air and the resulting weather. Cool, dry air is very stable ...