A warm, dry downslope wind that forms on the leeward side of a mountain range when moist air is forced to rise on the windward side, cooling and losing most of its moisture as precipitation, then descending the far slope and warming rapidly through compression. The effect can raise temperatures by many degrees within minutes and is best known from the European Alps, where it lends its name, Foehn, to the broader category of similar winds found on leeward mountain slopes worldwide.
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The rapid temperature rise and snowmelt a foehn wind brings on its lee-side descent is a well-documented direct trigger of wet-snow avalanches in mountain regions.
The Chinook wind of North America's Rocky Mountains is the regional name for the same foehn effect: a warm, dry, adiabatically heated wind descending a mountain's lee slope.
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