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The Foehn Effect

The foehn Effect is a phenomena found in meteorology, and is when dry wind coming down a mountain warms up as it descends. Named after the Foehn winds of the European alps, especially southern Germany, this is often wrongly refered to as the fohn effect, even by some weather sites that should know better.

There appears to be some link between the ionisation found with this effect and Deep Vein Thrombosis, but this is still in need of further research.

There are several other examples of wind systems showing this phenomena which include

• The Zonda wind of Argentina, as found in Aconcagua Provincial park
• The Puelche, also in the Andes
• The Halny Wiatr in Poland
• The Koembang in Java
• The Santa Ana in California
• The Chinook in the Rocky mountains
• The Sirocco in North Africa, Greece and Spain
• The Harmattan in West Africa
• The Bora in former Yugoslavia
• The Simoom in Arabia
• The Kamsin in Syria
• The Samiel in turkey

last modified 19:30 2004/03/01