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What is katabatic wind in geography?
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. In areas where fall winds occur, homes and orchards are situated on hillslopes above the lowlands where the cold air accumulates.
What causes katabatic wind?
Also known as fall winds, katabatic winds are usually caused by gravity pulling higher density air downslope to lower density air.
What are katabatic and Anabatic winds?
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.
What is katabatic wind in meteorology?
Katabatic winds (from Greek – katabatikos meaning ‘going down’) form when cold air above a plateau, mountain, glacier, or even a hill flows down a slope due to gravity. Katabatic winds are cool, dry and can be strong. They are very common in the Antarctic and can achieve wind speeds of 190 mph.
Where are katabatic winds found?
Katabatic winds are most commonly found blowing out from the large and elevated ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. The buildup of high density cold air over the ice sheets and the elevation of the ice sheets brings into play enormous gravitational energy.
What is katabatic flow in geography?
Definition. A cold flow of air travelling down an orographic slope (eg. hill or mountain).
Where are katabatic winds strongest?
How fast are katabatic winds?
15 to 20 meters per second
Fairly quiet conditions turn instantaneously, with katabatic winds reaching speeds of 15 to 20 meters per second (50 to 66 ft/sec)!
What are berg wind conditions?
(Literally, mountain wind.) A hot, dry, squally wind blowing off the interior plateau of South Africa, roughly at right angles to the coast; a type of foehn. Berg wind episodes may last two to three days, causing uncomfortable weather for people and damage to crops. …
Which type of wind is an example of a katabatic wind?
Examples of true katabatic winds include the bora in the Adriatic, the Bohemian Wind or Böhmwind in the Ore Mountains, the Santa Ana in southern California, the piteraq winds of Greenland, and the oroshi in Japan.
Why are katabatic winds so strong in Antarctica?
Wind. The strong winds of Antarctica are called katabatics, formed by cold, dense air flowing out from the polar plateau of the interior down the steep vertical drops along the coast. It is at the steep edge of Antarctica that the strong katabatic winds form as cold air rushes over the land mass.
Are katabatic winds dry?
Katabatic wind (from the Greek: katabaino – to go down) is the generic term for downslope winds flowing from high elevations of mountains, plateaus, and hills down their slopes to the valleys or planes below. Cold and usually dry katabatic winds, like the Bora, result from the downslope gravity flow of cold, dense air.