Fohn Again

[Dillon Browne]

Revisting the old forum I came across this post from ‘H’ –

“It must have been Anita in Cumberland, UK, who drew our attention to the Helm Wind, a fohn type:

http://http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/wind/The-Helm-Wind.htm

On 6JAN15 in The Times (UK) Paul Simon’s column discussed the north Wales coast where Abergwyngregyn (Aber to you or probably your map, opposite the eastern tip of Anglesey Island, east of Bangor) holds the UK January record temperature of 18.3C (65F).

The westerly Atlantic winds hit the mountains to the south and west of Aber, sweep down the lee side and become squeezed and turn dry and warm – a fohn wind.”

I missed it the first time and actually it wouldn’t have meant much to me at the beginning of January. But towards the end of the month I happened to stay a couple of villages away from Aber. Visiting from central England I was surprised to find some daffodils already in flower. Perhaps this isn’t unusual for North Wales but while this village had flowers in bloom, other villages away from the coast area still had the shoots coming up. Perhaps a physical result of the fohn effect.

Dillon

[Howard Brown]

Interesting, Airhead – a good example of apophenia.

‘H’

[Howard Brown]

Paul Simons in The Times (UK) 20FEB15 mentions fohn again. On 18FEB15 Fyvie Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, soared to 15.6C (60.1F). He said Aberdeenshire can benefit from some warm, sunny conditions as fohn winds sweep down from the Highlands.

[Mike Rubin]

I’ve experienced the Fohn first hand, at Deeside Gliding club in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire. One day in October the entire country was grey and damp, except for NE Scotland where the Fohn effect gave us warm and sunny conditions.

Another September when heading North up the A1 the remnants of hurricane Katia hit the UK. West of the Pennines the weather was pretty damp. But in the lee of the Pennines a Fohn effect meant it was glorious warm sunshine, but mighty windy. It was hard to stay in lane on the road! As soon as we turned off and followed Hadrian’s Wall over the pennines we found low cloud and drizzly rain as we stopped at Housesteads Roman Fort.

Another Fohn like effect last September was in Cornwall. With a warm moist Southerly Breeze the South Coast was cloaked in fog all day. When we drove to Padstow on the North Coast that side was clear of the fog in warm sunshine. Perfect for Cornish Ice Cream!

-Mike

[Dillon Browne]

Hmmmmm. Very interesting ‘H’.
Have to admit that I had to look up apophenia as it’s not part of my regular vocabulary. I think I would have to disagree because I would see the flowering daffodils as an actual effect of the fohn wind rather than my observation of a randon occurrence that I attribute to the wind.
But you could well be right. Perhaps it’s my perception of reality that’s skewed.

[Howard Brown]

It was moderator Andrew Pothecary (Poth), I think, who pointed out that apophenia applied to clouds that look like things. When I looked it up I came across this MS Researcher, ‘Apophenia’, and her motto ‘making connections where none previously existed’:

http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/

So I tend to think of it in terms of the motto; the warmer, dryer fohn causes earlier flowering, a connection which I had not known existed, and possibly other Forum members had not known either.

Anyway, participating in the Forum can but improve the mind. Q.E.D.

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