Foehn wind

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For the antiaircraft rocket projector, see Henschel Hs 297.
How Föhn is produced
Föhn clouds in Geneva (Switzerland)
Locally described as a "Northwest arch" in Canterbury, New Zealand

A Föhn or Foehn is a type of dry, warm, down-slope wind that occurs in the lee (downwind side) of a mountain range.

It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of its moisture on windward slopes (see orographic lift). As a consequence of the different adiabatic lapse rates of moist and dry air, the air on the leeward slopes becomes warmer than equivalent elevations on the windward slopes. Föhn winds can raise temperatures by as much as 32 °C (58 °F)[1] in just a matter of hours. Central Europe enjoys a warmer climate due to the Föhn, as moist winds off the Mediterranean Sea blow over the Alps.






The cause of warm, dry conditions on the lee side[edit]



The name Foehn (German: Föhn, pronounced [ˈføːn]) arose in the Alpine region. Originating from Latin (ventus) favonius, a mild west wind of which Favonius was the Roman personification[5] and probably transmitted by Romansh: favuogn or just fuogn, the term was adopted as Old High German: phōnno. In the Southern Alps, the phenomenon is known as Italian: favonio and Slovene: fen. The German word "Fön" (without the "H", but pronounced the same way), a genericized trademark, is also used to mean "hairdryer," and the form "foehn" is used in Suisse Romande to mean "hairdryer" as well.

Local examples[edit]



In popular culture[edit]

  • In Southern Germany, this wind is supposed to cause disturbed mood. Heinrich Hoffmann notes in his book Hitler Was My Friend that on the evening of September 18, 1931, when Adolf Hitler and Hoffmann left their Munich apartment on an election campaign tour, Hitler had complained about a bad mood and feeling. Hoffmann tried to pacify Hitler about the Austrian Föhn wind as the possible reason. Hours later, Hitler's niece, Geli Raubal, was found dead in his Munich apartment. It was declared that she had committed suicide though it had conflicting testimonies from the witnesses present.
  • The Föhn blowing through Zurich torments the characters in Robert Anton Wilson's Masks of the Illuminati.

Fön trademark[edit]

AEG registered the trademark Fön in 1908 for its hairdryer. The word became a genericized trademark and is now, with varying spelling, the standard term for "hairdryer" in several languages, such as Finnish, German, Swiss German, Danish, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Czech, Croatian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Hebrew, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Serbian, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and Swiss French.

See also[edit]




  6. ^

External links[edit]