

CHINOOK WINDS. 21 



Peak, where a considerable accumulation of snow, 2 to 3 meters (7 to 

 10 feet) deep in August, seems to remain permanently. 



The highest temperature noted on the high summits was 25.5° G. 

 (77.9° F.) on Stevens Peak, August 5, at an elevation of 2,004 meters 

 (0,800 feet), and the lowest, -2.5° C. (27.3° F.) on duly 26, south from 

 Wiessner Peak, at an elevation of 1,925 meters (0,350 feet). 



Mention should be made of the chinook wind in connection with 

 these notes upon the climatic conditions of the Cceur d'Alenes. This 

 is a warm, either moist or dry, wind which is supposed to be especially 

 characteristic of winter and spring months. It has decidedly remark- 

 able powers to melt the snow and mitigate the winter's cold. Numer- 

 ous theories are rife to account for this wind, but the one most commonly 

 accepted is that it stands in some occult relation to the "black current" 

 of Japan. The character of the chinook varies so considerably, how- 

 ever, that one may be pardoned for not readily yielding adherence to 

 this orthodox theory. Now, the way the chinook manifests itself in 

 the Carnr d'Alenes is this: There are clearly two kinds of chinook, 

 a wet and a dry. The wet chinook is a most frequent accompani- 

 ment of a very severe snowfall in the latter part of January. This 

 may have commenced with a low temperature, which gradually begins 

 to rise as the storm advances. Finally a cessation of the snowfall 

 occurs. Black heavy-looking clouds appear in solid masses in the 

 southwest, a low soughing sound begins to be heard as the first indica- 

 tions of the coining wind. Soon fitful gusts of warm air flit by, and 

 presently, with loud roarings and erashings and accompanied by tor- 

 rents of rain, the chinook is on. During a wet chinook a high tempera- 

 ture prevails as far up as the most elevated summits in the Occur 

 d'Alenes and rain falls in great quantities on the absorbent snow. The 

 duration of the chinook is very uncertain. It may last a week, and it 

 may last only a few hours. After it has blown an indefinite time the 

 wind veers a few points to the west. It then changes to a dry chinook 

 and the temperature becomes much lower. The rainfall in the upper 

 regions becomes snow and freezing weather sets in again in the lower 

 elevations. Chinook winds may occur at any time in the winter, but 

 they are generally absent during December and the greater part of 

 January. Occasionally they do not come until March, and in such 

 cases the region suffers from a late spring. These winds are absolutely 

 essential to the early starting of vegetation in the Co-ur d'Alenes, which 

 would otherwise be delayed until the summer season. The chinook is 

 a fitful and uncertain wind in other ways than in its duration. It 

 sometimes blows only above a certain altitude and does not descend 

 below a given point, as, for instance, the 1,000-meter (3,300-foot) level. 

 When this occurs we have the spectacle of the snow melting at eleva- 

 tions above this height while the air is at freezing point in the lowest 



valleys. 



Whatever may be its origin, it does not seem at all probable that the 



