Sirocco

The Scirocco (also Sirocco or sirocco ) is a hot wind from the south to south- easterly directions, which blows from the Sahara to the Mediterranean. He is an even hotter desert wind, which often in spring, early summer and autumn blowing. In extreme cases, speeds of a tropical cyclone can be achieved.

Basics

It is created by the temperature difference between cool low pressure areas in southern Europe and the hot air over the Sahara Desert, centrally Mediterranean subtropical cyclones and typical Genua-/Adriatiefs (V- weather) can form the core action. The greater the temperature difference, the stronger is the Scirocco. The Scirocco is dry on Africa, but absorbs moisture over the Mediterranean, the rains out under circumstances in European Mediterranean countries.

Because of its emergence over the desert, the Scirocco imports large quantities of sand dust with it, so the air gets a yellowish- reddish- brown color. The visibility can drop to under one mile and take the storm the character of a sandstorm.

Entrained sand is deposited on Alpine glaciers, resulting in a visible browning of the snow surface and thereby reduce the albedo ( retroreflectivity ) and to an improved ablation. However, the Scirocco is not solely responsible for the decline of European glaciers since these layers can also be re- covered with white snow ( accumulation ) and also other factors to be included. The deposited dust can be recovered by ice cores and thus give information on the climatic conditions of the last few centuries.

To name

The Scirocco has different names depending on the region: