INSTRUCTIONS TO MARINE METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVERS J 09 



Bull's-eye squall. — A squall forming in fair weather, characteristic of the 

 ocean off the coast of South Africa ; so called on account of the peculiar appear- 

 ance of the small isolated cloud that marks the top of the invisible vortex of 

 the storm. 



Callina. — ^A Spanish name for dry fog. 



Cat's paw. — A slight and local breeze, which shows itself by rippling the 

 surface of the sea. 



Chubasco. — A violent squall on the west coast of tropical and subtropical 

 North America. 



Cordonaso; in full, cordonazo cle San Francisco ("lash of St. Francis"). — A 

 hurricane wind blowing from a southerly quadrant on the west coast of Mexico 

 as the result of the passing of a tropical cyclone off the coast. 



Devil. — The name applied to a dust whirlwind in India. The term is also 

 current in South Africa. 



"Doctor". — A colloquial name for the sea breeze in tropical climates. The 

 name is sometimes applied to other cool, invigorating breezes. 



Etesian s. — Northerly winds blowing in summer over the eastern Mediter- 

 ranean. 



Garua. — A wet fog of the west coast of South America. 



Gregale. — The northeast wind on the Mediterranean ; especially a stormy 

 northeast wind at Malta. 



liarmattan. — A dry, dusty wind of the West Coast of Africa, blowing from the 

 deserts. 



Horse latitudes. — The regions of calms and variable winds coinciding with 

 the subtropical high-pressure belts lying on the poleward sides of the trade 

 winds. (The term has generally been applied only to the northern of these two 

 regions in the North Atlantic Ocean, or to the portion of it near Bermuda.) 



Indian summer. — A period of mild, calm, hazy weather occurring in autumn 

 or early winter, especially in the United States and Canada ; popularly regarded 

 as a definite event in the calendar, but weather of this type is really of irregular 

 and intermittent occurrence. 



Khamsin. — A hot, dry, southerly wind occurring in Egypt during the spring. 



Leste. — A hot dry, easterly wind of the Madeira and Canary Islands. \ 



Levanter. — A strong easterly wind of the Mediterranean, especially in the 

 Straits of Gibraltar, where it is attended by damp or foggy weather. 



Mackerel sky. — An area of sky covered with cirrocumulus or altocumulus 

 clouds ; especially when the clouds resemble the patterns seen on the backs of 

 mackerel. 



Mares' tails. — Cirrus in long slender streaks. 



Mistral. — Along the Mediterranean coast, from the mouth of the Ebro to the 

 Gulf of Genoa, a stormy, cold northerly wind, blowing down from the moun- 

 tains of the interior. (The name is sometimes applied to northerly winds on 

 the Adriatic, in Greece, and in Algeria.) 



Moon do(j. — A paraselene. (See Parhelion.) 



Mountain and valley breezes. — The breezes that in mountainous regions nor- 

 mally blow up the slopes by day (valley breeze) , and down the slopes by night. 



Norther. — A northerly wind; especially strong northerly winds of sudden 

 onset occurring during the colder half of the year over the region from Texas 

 southward, including the Gulf of Mexico and the western Caribbean. 



Pampero. — A southwest squall blowing over or from the pampas of South 

 America. Off the coast of Argentina these squalls are most prevalent from 

 July to September. 



Papagayo. — A strong to violent northeasterly wind, somewhat similar to the 

 Tehuantepecer, which blows during the colder months in the Gulf of Papagayo, 

 on the northwest coast of Costa Rica, and in adjacent Pacific coastal waters. 



Roaring forties. — (See Brave west winds.) 



Scud. — Shreds or small detached masses of cloud moving rapidly below a 

 solid deck of higher clouds. Scud may be composed of either fractocumulus 

 or fractostratus clouds. 



Shamal. — A northwesterly wind of Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. 



Simoom. — An intensely hot and dry wind of Asian and African deserts; often 

 described as a sand storm or dust storm, but certain authorities state that the 

 typical simoom is free from sand and dust. 



Sirocco. — A name applied to various types of warm wind in the Mediterranean 

 region. Some of these siroccos are foehns. The term is also used as the 



