Winds of the world

Stu Nettle picture
Stu Nettle (stunet)
Swellnet Analysis

Need we say that wind is important to surfers? Of course it is! It's wind that creates the waves, and it's wind that either preens them clean or reduces them to a shapeless mess depending on the direction it blows.

Around the world there are hundreds of winds that blow so regularly humans have got cosy with them. We've given them names and talk about them in familiar terms. And the etymology of the names is wonderfully diverse, from the direction the wind in question blows, to the regions it crosses, to the odd spot of artistry.

Here's a list of the winds of the world, the surfers version, meaning only those winds that cross a coast.

Berg Wind: South African wind taken from the Afrikaans word for 'mountain'. Berg winds precede approaching cold fronts which push heated air heated over the Central Plateau down the Great Escarpment and across the South African coastline. The bane of J'Bay locals. Called the Devil Wind by Joe Turpel.

Black Nor'easter: The predominant summer wind on Australia's East Coast is the Nor-easter and a Black Nor-easter is a jumped up version. Usually driven by synoptics – i.e a ridge of high pressure - rather than a seabreeze. Archaic but sounds bloody good. Coincidentally the predominant summer wind in Western Cape, South Africa, is the south-easter and their jumped version is a Black South-Easter.

Brickfielder: A hot and dry wind that blows in the Australian summer. Originated in Sydney and named after Brickfield Hill in Surry Hills, though since used in other states by people who've no idea where Brickfield Hill is

Calima: A dry, dusty wind that originates in the Sahara and blows south to southeasterly over the Canary Islands during winter. Offshore on the north and northwest coasts. Just add swell.

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Cape Doctor: Another South African wind. 'Die Kaapse Dokter' in Afrikaans. The Cape Doctor is a south-east summer seabreeze and got it's name through local belief that it clears Cape Town of pollution and pestilence. See Fremantle Doctor.

Cow-quaker: England. A storm that hits in May after the cows have been led out to pasture. Archaic but couldn't leave it out.

Custard Winds: Cold easterly winds on the northeast coast of England. Etymology is anyone's guess.

Diablo: San Francisco. The real Devil Wind, at least for those who know their Spanish. Hot, dry offshore winds from the northeast. Perhaps named because they blow from the direction of Diablo Valley or simply because the fiery winds draw devilish connotations.

Fremantle Doctor: Perth. Warm southwest seabreeze that blows through Perth from the direction of Fremantle, hence the name. See Cape Doctor. Now argue who plagiarised who (pretty sure the South Africans ripped us off).

Habagat: Philippines. Southwesterly monsoonal wind that blow across the Philippines.

Kona: Hawaii. A gusty south to southwest wind that replaces the northeast trades bringing high humidity and often rain. Usually associated with low pressure systems passing close by. Kona is a Hawaiian language word that means western side of an island, the sides that are usually dry but drenched in a Kona.

Mara'amu: Tahiti. From April to October the easterly trade winds blow across Tahiti which is sideshore at Teahupoo. When a high pressure system passes to the south the pressure gradient is squeezed and the Mara'amu wind blows sending the chandeliers down.

Mistral: France. Cold northerly wind that originates in the Alps and blows down to the Mediterranean powering many windsurfers who ride fancy equipment bearing the same name.

Nor-easter: Sydney. From the country that gave you the Sandy Desert and the Snowy Mountains comes the wind named after the direction it blows. Summertime seabreeze. See Black Nor-easter.

Pampero: The pampero is a burst of cold polar air from the west, southwest or south on the Pampas in the south of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Fancy name for a Brazilian storm.

Santa Ana: California. Strong, dry winds that originate inland from Southern California and blow downslope across the coast through the night and early mornings. Name checked in the opening scene of Big Wednesday:

“It was a hot wind called the Santa Ana, and it carried with it the smell of warm places. It blew the strongest before dawn, across the Point. My friends and I would sleep in our cars, and the smell of the offshore wind would often wake us. And each morning, we knew this would be a special day.”

Santa Lucia winds: Central California. Downmarket regional variety of the Santa Ana so called because they blow from the Santa Lucia Mountains. Never made it to Hollywood.

Sirocco: Mediterranean. A strong, dry wind that originates in the Sahara and blows north across the Mediterranean carrying dust to southern Europe. Also Australian Crawl's best album.

Southerly Buster: Australia East Coast. Rapidly arriving blustery cold front that cools the coast during summer.

Sundowner: California. An offshore northerly wind in Santa Barbara, California. Sundowners often precede Santa Ana winds by a day or so.

Comments

surfstarved's picture
surfstarved's picture
surfstarved Thursday, 20 Oct 2016 at 1:05pm

I was just thinking about this the other day Stu, contemplating a little article on named winds. Thanks.

You could add the searingly hot "Effing Northerly" that blows in SA over summer, ahead of cold fronts coming up off the Southern Ocean. Hot, dry, and powerful, they have a habit of turning small columns of smoke into giant conflagrations that devour everything in their path.

One's just kicking up right now, in fact. Thankfully there's no smoke on the horizon and it's hardly stopped raining for the past three months, so everything's too wet to catch.

The Effing Northerly's only redeeming feature is that it's almost straight offshore down on the south coast, but its strength can offset this factor, as more often than not it blows any swell that might be in the water back down towards Antarctica.

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Thursday, 20 Oct 2016 at 1:37pm

For those who've been to Mainland Mex and more so down towards Salina Cruz out of the peak summer season, you may have encountered the Tehuantepecer, or Tehuano wind.

It's a post-frontal violent funneling northerly wind between the Mexican and Guatemalan mountains.

Due to its strength, it also produces swell radially spreading out from it, and this can create unwanted easterly chops/ridges and wedges across the points further to the west, messing up the long-lined southerly swell lines. More about it here: Tehuantepecer.

It's also great for wind power, with turbines setup in the vicinity.

Thanks to my mate Blake for the heads up on this one.

freeride76's picture
freeride76's picture
freeride76 Thursday, 20 Oct 2016 at 2:06pm

freo doctor is a seabreeze from the SW not SE

upnorth's picture
upnorth's picture
upnorth Thursday, 20 Oct 2016 at 10:43pm

If a custard wind comes from the NW its a cats nose. No idea.

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Friday, 21 Oct 2016 at 9:45am

I came across the Cat's Nose but had no idea if it was popular enough to warrant inclusion.

Cold as a cat's nose?

upnorth's picture
upnorth's picture
upnorth Friday, 21 Oct 2016 at 7:15pm

Must be something like that. Probably wouldn't hear it much outside NE England but then we're quite partial to a colloquialism. Got to pass those long winter nights somehow.

chook's picture
chook's picture
chook Friday, 21 Oct 2016 at 9:38am

the santa anna is an evil, ugly wind.

Fleazool's picture
Fleazool's picture
Fleazool Friday, 21 Oct 2016 at 1:10pm

This article reminds of a classic TSOL track

derra83's picture
derra83's picture
derra83 Friday, 21 Oct 2016 at 1:36pm

Brickfielder brings back memories. Haven't heard it in years but my grandad used it a bit.

robbo's picture
robbo's picture
robbo Friday, 21 Oct 2016 at 3:35pm

Brickfielder is a good one. I've thought it was also used for a southerly buster, blowing brick dust from the old St Peters brickworks into Sydney

truebluebasher's picture
truebluebasher's picture
truebluebasher Saturday, 22 Oct 2016 at 5:36pm

Naming of winds possibly took root here from ancient big island surf culture.

Bundjalung people tell the story of Wollumbin the warrior cloud catcher.
Near by stands Wooroombin warrior of offshore,westerly winds.
Further along border range stands Bululgun guardian of the cyclonic winds.

World surfing reserve Angourie is the sound of the wind.
Sounds of the sea once echoed thru the northern rivers illustrious cave systems assisting clevermen 'hairies' to forecast the weather.
Sadly most of these cave systems have been destroyed.

Continuing along Main Range into Qld stands 'Barambah' also a keep of the Westerly wind.

( Qld Modern era)

Qld BOM employed Clement Wragge 1880's - It was here he began naming Cyclones.
1890's Wragge still at BOM continued with the naming storm systems.
Incidentally founder of Brisbane canoe club.(meteoric/waterman).

World adopted Qld BOM tradition of naming tornadoes/typhoons/cyclones.
New requests from southerners to name ECL's + adopt category 1-5 system.

Nowadays,dead of winter Qld'ers brace for the Ekka Winds.(westerly of course)

Burgin bumbilehla- (local for) ..'.The wind is blowing'. Hooroo!

tworules's picture
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tworules Saturday, 22 Oct 2016 at 5:43pm

and now you have Westerly Windeera !!!

Sheepdog's picture
Sheepdog's picture
Sheepdog Sunday, 23 Oct 2016 at 11:55pm

Ummmmm, hello...... Where's the "jellyfish shitwind"? bahahahaha

And what about the roaring 40s? Had fuckn months of them here...
And I dont know a slang name for the summer north wind that cooks Adelaide and Melbourne, usually when a summer high is parked of nsw, and the isobars bend around Alice springs/ Birdvile, drawing desert air southward..... I hereby name it the blowfly sandwich.

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Monday, 24 Oct 2016 at 6:20am

Good point re: Roaring 40s (and Furious 50s, Screaming 60s etc). We set a requirement that each wind should interact with the coast - therefore eliminating continental winds that didn't affect surf conditions - but those three obviously have an influence on surf conditions in another way. 

Re: summer north wind - I think you're referring to the 'Brickfielder'.