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Fall wind

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A fall wind is a type of downslope wind. Like katabatic winds, it is driven by the flow of an elevated, high-density (usually cold) air mass into a lower-density (warmer) air mass, but the term fall wind is restricted to the cases where the cold air mass is not due to radiative cooling of a slope, but to the presence of a dense air mass at the top of a slope[1]. A well-known example of a fall wind is the Bora in the Adriatic sea region, to the extent that the term ‘bora wind’ is sometimes used to designate a fall wind[2].

The presence of the dense (cold) air mass at the top can be caused by various meteorological phenomena, such as the arrival of a cold front[1], or from the advection of cool marine air by a sea breeze[3]. The flow of the dense air mass during fall winds events is similar to the flow of water over a dam, with a hydraulic jump found downstream[4][3].

Examples of fall winds are the Bora in the Adriatic, the Athos fall wind[5] in Greece, or the Marinada in Catalonia.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Fall wind". Glossary of Meteorology of the American Meteorological Society. 2024-03-30. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
  2. ^ Stull, Roland (2020-03-31). "17.10: Downslope Winds". Geosciences LibreTexts. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
  3. ^ a b Lunel, Tanguy; Jimenez, Maria Antonia; Cuxart, Joan; Martinez-Villagrasa, Daniel; Boone, Aaron; Le Moigne, Patrick (2024-07-05). "The marinada fall wind in the eastern Ebro sub-basin: physical mechanisms and role of the sea, orography and irrigation". Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 24 (13): 7637–7666. Bibcode:2024ACP....24.7637L. doi:10.5194/acp-24-7637-2024. ISSN 1680-7324.
  4. ^ Stull, Roland (2020-01-22). "17.4: Open-channel Hydraulics". Geosciences LibreTexts. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
  5. ^ "Athos fall wind". Glossary of Meteorology of the American Meteorological Society. 2024-03-28.