Weather Word of the Day | weatherology°

Weather Word of the Day

July 13, 2026

Valley Breeze - A breeze that flows up a mountainside during the day. This upsloping breeze occurs due to the fact that the valley walls warm up faster than the higher terrain in the mountains. This makes the air in the valleys lighter than the air along the higher terrain of the mountains, making the air near the valley buoyant. The result is the upward breeze along the mountainsides during the day.

July 12, 2026

Hiver - Hiver is the French word for winter.

July 11, 2026

Willy-Willy - A term most commonly used in Australia referring to a dust devil. Dust devils are small, rapidly rotating columns of wind that are made visible by dust or dirt that get sucked into them. They are most commonly seen in the afternoon on hot, dry days.

July 10, 2026

Mountain Breeze - A wind pattern that develops during the night due to differential cooling on the mountain compared to nearby valleys. The mountain cools faster than the valleys in the evening. This cool, dense air blows down the mountainsides into the valleys. The opposite occurs during the day, which produces an upslope wind known as the valley breeze.

July 9, 2026

Equinox - Time of year when day and night are nearly equal in length. The equinoxes signal a transitional time of year. In the northern hemisphere, the autumnal equinox is the transition season that leads up to winter. Conversely, the vernal equinox is the transition season of spring that leads to summer. On the equator, the sun can be seen directly overhead at noon on the day of an equinox.

July 8, 2026

CAPE - An important term used to describe how unstable the atmosphere is. CAPE is an acronym for Convective Available Potential Energy. CAPE is a measure of potential energy in the atmosphere. The greater the CAPE is, the stronger a thunderstorm will be if one develops. The presence of CAPE alone does not mean thunderstorms will develop, as other factors must be overcome for the energy potential to be realized.

July 7, 2026

Anemometer - An instrument that measures wind speed. The strongest wind speed ever recorded by an anemometer was 253 mph during the passage of a cyclone on Barrow Island, Australia back in April of 1996.