A katabatic wind (named from the Greek word κατάβασις katabasis, meaning "descending") is a drainage wind, a wind that carries high-density air from a higher elevation down a slope under the force of gravity.

What does the word katabatic mean?

: relating to or being a wind produced by the flow of cold dense air down a slope (as of a mountain or glacier) in an area subject to radiational cooling.

What makes katabatic winds?

Also known as fall winds, katabatic winds are usually caused by gravity pulling higher density air downslope to lower density air.

What is katabatic and Anabatic wind?

Anabatic Winds are upslope winds driven by warmer surface temperatures on a mountain slope than the surrounding air column. Katabatic winds are downslope winds created when the mountain surface is colder than the surrounding air and creates a down slope wind.

Is katabatic wind warm or cold?

Katabatic wind is a dense cold wind that sinks down from high mountain plateaus to valleys below. It is described by Meteorologists as heavy cold air that practically mimics the movement of mountain water as it flows downslope and waterfalls over steep canyons.

Anabatic and Katabatic wind

Why is Antarctica so cold?

Both the Arctic (North Pole) and the Antarctic (South Pole) are cold because they don't get any direct sunlight. The Sun is always low on the horizon, even in the middle of summer. In winter, the Sun is so far below the horizon that it doesn't come up at all for months at a time.

Can you describe a katabatic wind?

Katabatic wind, also called downslope wind, or gravity wind, wind that blows down a slope because of gravity. It occurs at night, when the highlands radiate heat and are cooled. ... This process is most pronounced in calm air because winds mix the air and prevent cold pockets from forming.

Is Chinook a katabatic wind?

Not all downslope winds are katabatic. For instance, winds such as the föhn and chinook are rain shadow winds where air driven upslope on the windward side of a mountain range drops its moisture and descends leeward drier and warmer.

How do Anabatic winds form?

Anabatic winds are mainly created by ultraviolet solar radiation heating up the lower regions of an orographic area (i.e. valley walls). Due to its limited heat capacity, the surface heats the air immediately above it by conduction. As the air warms, its volume increases, and hence density and pressure decreases.

What are the 4 types of wind?

The four major wind systems are the Polar and Tropical Easterlies, the Prevailing Westerlies and the Intertropical Convergence Zone. These are also wind belts. There are three other types of wind belts, also. They are called Trade Winds, Doldrums, and Horse Latitudes.

What are katabatic winds and where do they occur?

Locations. Katabatic winds are most significant in the two parts of the world with grand continental ice sheets: Greenland and Antarctica. Those huge frozen plateaus -- the last remnants of the enormous ice bodies of the Pleistocene glaciations -- reliably generate katabatic air movements along their margins.

How is a chinook wind different from a katabatic wind?

Katabatic winds often originate over high elevation snow covered plateaus where stagnant air can become quite cold and also very dry. ... A chinook (foehn) wind is a warm dry down slope wind.

What is the fern effect?

What is the foehn effect? In simple terms, this is a change from wet and cold conditions one side of a mountain, to warmer and drier conditions on the other (leeward) side.

What does chinook wind mean?

Definitions of chinook wind. a warm dry wind blowing down the eastern slopes of the Rockies. synonyms: chinook, snow eater. type of: air current, current, current of air, wind. air moving (sometimes with considerable force) from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure.

What are downslope winds?

Downslope Winds occur when warm/dry air descends rapidly down a mountain side. These are common on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, called Chinook Winds. ... This creates dry winds that flow east to west through the mountain passages in Southern California.

What is the definition of Herbie?

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Herbie is an anthropomorphic 1963 Volkswagen Beetle, a character that is featured in several Disney motion pictures starting with the 1969 feature film The Love Bug.

How strong are katabatic winds?

Fairly quiet conditions turn instantaneously, with katabatic winds reaching speeds of 15 to 20 meters per second (50 to 66 ft/sec)!

How does katabatic wind cause frost?

Cold and usually dry katabatic winds, like the Bora, result from the downslope gravity flow of cold, dense air. ... The gentler katabatic flows of hill slopes produce frost hollows. Mountain breezes are part of a local wind system.

Which wind is known as anabatic wind?

Anabatic wind also called upslope wind, local air current that blows up a hill or mountain slope facing the Sun. During the day, the Sun heats such a slope (and the air over it) faster than it does the adjacent atmosphere over a valley or a plain at the same altitude.

Why is it called a chinook?

The Chinook is named after the Chinook Indians who lived along the Columbia River, and who were the first people to tell stories of "The Great South Wind", or, in their language, the "Snow Eater".

Does Red Deer get Chinooks?

In Alberta, Chinooks are most common in its southern region of Pincher Creek and Crowsnest Pass through to the Lethbridge areas which experience up to 30 or more every year. The weather phenomenon also occurs in Calgary on multiple occasions each year and can also happen north of Red Deer but not nearly as much.

Are Santa Ana winds katabatic?

The most infamous katabatic-wind events in North America are likely the Santa Ana winds, which blow westward out of the Great Basin every fall and pour hot, dry air over the mountain ranges of southern California.

Why katabatic winds are more intense in winter?

The katabatic winds are most pronounced during winter, when there is no incoming solar radiation, and a large pool of cold air over the interior is formed to feed the katabatic flow. ... Surface winds over the interior show a high directional constancy, indicating that they are dictated by the local orography.

Why do airplanes not fly over Antarctica?

Why don't planes fly over Antarctica? The White Continent does not have much in the way of infrastructure and herein lies why planes do not fly over it. Something called ETOPS (Extended Operations) governs how far from an emergency diversion airport certain aircraft are allowed to fly, according to its model.

Which is colder 0 C or 0 F?

Yes. 0°C is the freezing point of water, but 0°F is colder than the freezing point of water, because in the Fahrenheit scale water freezes at 32°F. This means 0°F is colder than 0°C. 1 degree of temperature in the Celsius scale represents more of a change than 1 degree of temperature in the Fahrenheit scale.