# The Naming of Winds **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 29, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948 "2003-11-29T19:47:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/1 "2003-11-29T19:47:04Z")
How are winds named? I seem to remember a general rule that all winds are named for the direction they blow towards, but then I may easily have been mixed up and it may be for the direction they blow from. Sites like [this one](http://www.umkc.edu/sites/env-sci/module4/weblab4.htm#Atmospheric%20Circulation) support my original thought, but I’m also wondering if, for example offshore winds and onshore winds and winds like the Santa Anas in S. California are named consistently. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/2 "2003-11-29T19:57:04Z")
Winds described with reference to the compass are described by the direction _from_ which they are coming; i.e., a northerly wind is coming from the north. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/3 "2003-11-29T20:03:28Z")
From [The Santa Ana Winds](http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/58january/santa.htm): > [@](#): > > Stephenson concluded that most of the evidence indicated that the winds were named for the locality in which the old-timers thought they originated, the Santa Ana Canyon. I guess kamikaze follows the same naming principle. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/4 "2003-11-29T20:15:41Z")
That doesn’t help with the ‘Hawk wind’ in Chicago. Any history on that? ---
**Author:** ![Papermache\_Prince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Papermache\_Prince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Papermache_Prince)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/5 "2003-11-29T20:41:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ringo \* > \*\*From [The Santa Ana Winds](http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/58january/santa.htm): > > I guess kamikaze follows the same naming principle. \*\* I thought kamikaze translates to “divine wind” with no reference to direction. “[Kamikaze](http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze) (from Kami - “god” and kaze - “wind”) means ‘divine wind’ in Japanese. It refers to the typhoon which saved Japan from a Mongol invasion fleet in 1281.” ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/6 "2003-11-29T20:58:41Z")
That was a bit tongue-in-cheek, meant in the sense that the Divine Wind was “from” a divine. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/7 "2003-11-29T21:12:53Z")
Funny you should start this thread right now; just now I was working my way through Don Delillo’s monster novel _Underworld_, and, synchronistically, came across mention of the _tramontana_. “He loved the Italian words for different kinds of winds that blow off the Alps or up from the African littoral.” In the Mediterranean, it seems the locals have a lot of specific names for different winds. Each one has its own name and its own characteristics. The _mistral_. The _tramontana_. The _scirocco_. The _khamsin_. The _simoom_. On the north side of the Alps, they have the _Föhn_. The only wind-name like this I know of in North America is the _chinook_, but that’s more of a generic description of a type of wind than the name of an distinct entity. The Mediterranean and European wind names seem to almost evoke a definite being with a will of its own. Someone sent me a totally bizarre study of the medical folklore of the black people who live in the Persian Gulf area. [http://www.iles.umn.edu/faculty/bashiri/Gulf%20folder/gulf.html](http://www.iles.umn.edu/faculty/bashiri/Gulf%20folder/gulf.html) They believe that sickness is caused by “winds” that blow on you. Each specific disease is caused by a different “wind.” Each of these winds has its own name and a specific place of origin in a part of Africa, several hundreds of miles away. Apparently a disease-causing wind can arise at such and such a spot in East Africa and blow to the Persian Gulf, targeting certain individuals. “Some Winds are pagan while others are Muslim…”; here you can see how in this view a “wind” is viewed as a conscious spirit entity like a _jinni_. In fact, in both Sumerian and Turkish, the word for wind (_lil_ in Sumerian, _yel_ in Turkish) is also used to mean ‘evil spirit’. Perhaps the Mediterranean habit of naming winds reflects some faint survival of this ancient belief that winds have individual identities, intentionality, and personality. **Jonathan Chance** , I thought Hawkwind was a British rock band. What’s it got to do with Chicago? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/8 "2003-11-29T21:17:19Z")
Specifically “named” winds such as the Hawk, the Chinnok, the Scirocco, etc. all have their own origins. Regarding general wind direction, there are two rules that (of course) are contrary to each other. As **Ringo** noted, the _general_ wind name (in English) is based on the compass direction _from which_ it comes. A Northerly wind blows from North to South, a West wind blows from West to East. A Nor’easter along the U.S. Atlantic coast is a counter-clockwise spinning storm off the coast that sends its heavy, surf-building and rain- or snow-bearing winds down from the Northeast even as the storm, itself, is slowly moving toward the North. (In other words, while the storm may be moving northward, the winds that hit the coast as the storm spins are moving out of the Northeast.) The special usage that differs is the description of winds over water near a shore. An onshore wind is blowing _toward_ the shore, an offshore breeze is blowing _from_ the shore out to sea. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/9 "2003-11-29T21:20:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ringo \* > \*\*That was a bit tongue-in-cheek, meant in the sense that the Divine Wind was “from” a divine. \*\* Or even from a divinity. ---
**Author:** ![deadeyesdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@deadeyesdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deadeyesdad)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/10 "2003-11-29T21:44:28Z")
“There is a letter on file at the Serra Museum written by the late Ann Guern, an authority on old Spanish. In it she states that her mother, Mrs. Alice Woodbury, lived in Santa Ana from childhood. Mrs. Woodbury reported that the members of the old Spanish families in those days (she had friends among the Verdugo, Sanchez, and Figueroa families) always spoke of the Santa Anas as deriving their name from the valley, and the canyon where they were strongest.” The Santa Anas in Santa Ana city do appear to come from the Santa Ana Canyon. For those unfamilar with the area this is the canyon of the Santa Ana river which is followed by the 91 freeway between the west end of Corona and the Yorba Linda/Anaheim city limts. Look at a So Cal map. YL and Anaheim probably go into the canyon a bit. But they do not come from there anywhere else in the greater LA area. I grew up in Chino(north of the canyon) and we always refered to the NE winds as “Santa Anas” The Moore article assumes that all So Cal residents adopted the Orange County name for the winds. There is a letter on file at the Serra Museum written by the late Ann Guern, an authority on old Spanish. In it she states that her mother, Mrs. Alice Woodbury, lived in Santa Ana from childhood. Mrs. Woodbury reported that the members of the old Spanish families in those days (she had friends among the Verdugo, Sanchez, and Figueroa families) always spoke of the Santa Anas as deriving their name from the valley, and the canyon where they were strongest. ancetdotal evidence?? ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/11 "2003-11-29T22:07:22Z")
Thanks all for your input! I appreciate the help. I knew there was some contrary naming principle in there, and tomndeb hit it on the head, onshore and offshore winds confuse me with the general naming scheme. Thanks also for the background on Santa Anas et al. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/12 "2003-11-29T22:39:11Z")
Here is a site that explains a little about the meteorology and folklore of these various winds. [http://www.cloudwall.com/wind/local/local.htm](http://www.cloudwall.com/wind/local/local.htm) It has all the ones discussed here so far, except no mention of the “Hawk wind,” whatever that is. On the Santa Ana: SANTA ANA, SUNDOWNER, MONO, DIABLO This California wind is hot, dry and blows from the North or Northeast in the pass and river valley of Santa Ana. It is the Spring scourge of fruit trees through out the valley and has been known to be very strong. Its reach continues across the deserts and through the mountain passes and across the coastal plain. Stuart Anthony of the San Fransisco Bay area has added the following information, and while he confesses to being just an amateur in this area I think you’ll agree this information is worth hearing. In Northern California, the Los Angeles Santa Ana is also known as the Diablo and/or Mono. These winds up here resulted in the horrific historic conflagration in the East Bay Hills on 19 October 1991 that killed 30+ people and took out 3,000 homes. In absence of ignition sources, they still drop trees; rip shingles, and more, off houses; down power and telephone lines; and break windows. The strongest set of gusts that I recall hit 90 mph (144kph) in November 1976. In the Santa Barbara Area 160 kilometres Northwest of Los Angeles, these winds are known as the Sundowner. There was a catastrophic conflagration there, as well, that burned down to the ocean. These winds constantly put people throughout California on tenterhooks, from August through Early December due to the extreme fire danger that they exacerbate, until the first significant wave of winter storms rolls in off the Pacific to wet down the oily and volatile fuels. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/13 "2003-11-29T22:48:07Z")
Here’s another site that has articles on “Winds of the World.” I couldn’t find a main navigation page for this feature, but here is a sample article on the Santa Ana: [http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/feature/ww070802.htm](http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/feature/ww070802.htm) From any of these pages there is a menu at the bottom of the page that navigates to the other winds. I was reminded of other such winds like the _Poniente_ that blow in the Mediterranean region and I keep wondering why the Mediterranean has so many individually named winds. Is it more a matter of meterology or folklore? ---
**Author:** ![Papermache\_Prince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Papermache\_Prince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Papermache_Prince)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/14 "2003-11-29T23:17:36Z")
[_ **Red Wind** _](http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/archives/200303/0112.html) - Raymond Chandler “There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husband’s necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.” ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/15 "2003-11-30T00:55:27Z")
The ‘hawk wind’ is the Northwestern wind the comes down from Minnesota and Canada during the winter in Chicago and reduces the ambient temperature to something approaching absolute zero (for those of you not from Chicago you just go on assuming I’m joking). But I never have heard an explanation for why it carries that name. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/16 "2003-11-30T00:56:47Z")
That Chandler quote sounds somehow Mediterranean. The belief that a certain wind can put people on edge. As though it were a malevolent force. I don’t know. I’ve never lived in a place where such legendary winds blow, so I can’t assess for myself whether they really have the effect on mass psychology they’re reputed to. Something about ionization in the air is supposed to affect people’s moods, though. Negatively charged ions are thought to be benefical, while positively charged ions are bad for you. Ozone is a negatively charged molecule; lightning strikes increase the ozone in the air around them. Negatively charged ions are said to abound in the mountains and at the seashore. What causes positively ionized winds to irritate people’s psychology? The dust they pick up while blowing over the desert? The only time I recall a wind affecting my mood, it was for the good. One evening in late May or June I was in Denver, Colorado, working on a painting with the door open to the outside. A fresh breeze scented with mountain pine trees was blowing into Denver from the nearby Rocky Mountains. It made me feel great as I breathed it, picked up my mood, and helped my artistic work. I guess it was charged with negative ions from the mountains. Presumably the _scirocco_ and Chandler’s “Red Wind” irritate people because they carry positively charged ions. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/17 "2003-11-30T01:13:36Z")
Dammit. This is going to bug me now. A few mentions: > [@](#): > > [From here](http://pws.prserv.net/ggaynor/chicago.htm) > In the winter, day and night the “HAWK” came, which was an icy sharp biting wind off of the lake that penetrated your skin and came to rest in the very marrow of your bones. Its biting icy wrath would take your breath away, pierce and torture your lungs. Suddenly your ears and nose pained excruciatingly. On its worse days it left your mind in a state of painful frozen jelly, like eating horseradish or ice cream to fast. The “HAWK’S” incredible sharpness and hard raw immensity blanketed your body, convincing you to seek immediate shelter at all costs. > [@](#): > > [From here (Warning: has music)](http://www.bastardpowered.com/cubs.htm) > By the shore’s of old Lake Michigan > Where the “hawk wind” blows so cold > [@](#): > > [From here](http://chicagolandtft.org/jacks_update_29.htm) > Some call the Wind Mariah, but in Chicago we call it The Hawk. Actually Da Hawk. It is a chilling, penetrating, assault from Mother Nature. Da Hawk will be present on Parade Day. There will be strong winds, and temperatures are expected to stay below freezing. This combination makes for dangerous wind chill factors. Riders should be extra careful to protect themselves against the cold. Remember what “Doc” the Elf says, and be aware of frostbite. Wear warm clothing and be prepared. > [@](#): > > [From BB KING!!!](http://www.wordofmouthproductions.org/chicago.htm) > And wind. B.B. King’s reason for never moving there was “Chicago has the hawk, the ferocious wind that goes whipping’ around in winter and rips off the top of your head.” Someone send help. I can’t stop looking. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-naming-of-winds/215948/18 "2003-11-30T03:35:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jonathan Chance \* > \*\*A few mentions: > > …Some call the Wind Mariah…\*\* No relation.