Talk:Mistral (wind)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article related to meteorology and/or specific weather events is part of WikiProject Meteorology and Weather Events, an attempt to standardize and improve all articles related to weather or meteorology. You can help! Visit the project page or discuss an article at its talk page.
Stub	This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the assessment scale.
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance within WikiProject Meteorology.

The article has been reorganised to concur with the french original, the headings have been put into shape, and the English has been improved and copy edited. I'm not a meteorologist so if I've made any gross errors please let me know Kudpung 13:05, 17 April 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kudpung (talk • contribs)

Are mistral and sea breeze the same thing, differently named because they appear in different parts of the world? --Romanm 11:13, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)

No, they are quite the opposite. A sea breeze is an onshore wind caused by the heating of air over the land at low altitudes. The Mistral is an offshore wind caused by the cooling of air over land at high altitudes.

The funnelling effect that produces the Mistral occurs at only a few places, and each wind produced this way has its own name. Sea breezes are universal. --iakobski

Aren't there some ill mental effects that are caused by this wind? --HurriSbezu

I have heard that because of the Mistral all trees(of certain varieties in an exposed location) in this area slant in a particular direction. It is dependable enough you can you the flora as a compass in this area. Can anyone from the area verify this? If so can we add it to the article and pictures would be great!--70.240.6.32 18:17, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

What is true : all trees are slant in the same direction, and many trees can't resist at all to this wind.

It is also true that it is hard to sleep some (few) days in the year, when the wind blows too extremely. That is hoppefully only some few days in the year, not enough to cause mental troubles :)

To end, there are 2 different winds : Tramontane and Mistral, using the same behavior, with different directions (both in direction of Gulf of Lion). First uses the North Pyrennees and south of Massif Central. Second uses the Rhône Valley (East of Massif Central, West of Alps). I think this article makes the same definition for both winds. that is highly possible the 2 winds are parts of the same atmospheric phenomenon, but Mistral is referent to the North to South wind blowing in the Rhône valley, why the other Tromontane is the second part using the Garonne valley.

The "blows mostly in the winter" is also quite strange for me. Tramontane (and Mistral?) blows when there is no clouds in the sky, that mean quite all the year. Here, we usually say that if there is no Tramontane, the sea-wind is blowing, and when there is no wind at all, the wind direction is just changing...

[edit] Mistral

Do you know when the mistral ends? Is it over by June?

Unfortunately it never really ends - it can blow in July and August and can make the sea suddenly very cold. But it's less frequent in the summer than in the winter. SiefkinDR (talk) 19:00, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

There seems to be a problem in this article with two sections on The Mistral from the Northeast. I'll try to do my best to sort it out. Il me semble qu'il y a deux morceaux sur "The Mistral from the Northeast". Je ferai de mon mieux de les rédiger le cas écheant.

The traditional houses in the provence have thick stone walls, sometimes 1 m, in the north side, with no openings for doors or windows to protect from the wind. Les maisons traditionelles ont des murs en pierre massif d'un épaisseur d'un metre, sans portes ni fenêtres, afin de proteger du Mistral.Kudpung 11:16, 17 April 2008 (UTC)