Foen-type winds will blow tomorrow Tuesday, according to the director of the National Meteorological Center of EMY, Thodoris Kolidas.
Specifically, in his forecast for Tuesday’s weather, Mr. Kolidas highlights the high temperatures that will prevail, but also the existence of strong Foen-type winds.
“Many times we have seen comparable or even greater differences of 16°C between North-West Greece and Southern Island areas, especially in cases where strong southerly downward winds prevail. Of course we are not referring to something “unprecedented”, such as e.g. for today’s 28 °C in Heraklion and 11 to 12 °C in the northwest”, says Mr. Kolidas.
“Tomorrow Tuesday we may catch even higher prices (the 30s), but it won’t be much, as reported in the press. These prices will be limited mainly in Crete, or where the locally strengthened Foen-type descending winds will again play an important role,” he underlines.
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What are Foen winds
Foehn-type winds are a type of periodic, descending, warm and dry winds, generated on the leeward side of the Alps, but subsequently prevailed as a term for local winds generated by this mechanism in many regions of the Earth.
In our country, Foen downwinds usually occur in North Crete when strong southerly winds blow, in South Crete when strong northerly winds blow, while quite often they also appear in the eastern continental parts when strong westerly winds prevail or in Western Greece when easterly winds blow to northeast directions.
The most dangerous downwinds observed in the Greek area are at Cape Athos and Cape Maleas.
How are they created?
Foen-type winds are created due to the difference in density of the air found on mountain slopes or coasts, compared to adjacent areas. A basic condition is that there is a high vertical obstacle to the wind flow, such as a mountain range. The air is initially forced to rise on the windward side of the mountain mass, where by condensing its water vapor it forms clouds and in some cases gives rain, storms or snowfall, while it then descends on the leeward side of the mountain mass where it dries and warms at a rate of about 10ºC per 1 km.
