Weather Extra: Chinook winds

The warm temperatures over the past couple of days are not a result of Global Warming This week in Weather Extra Hutch and Ryan discuss the Chinook wind Hutch - Even though the Rocky Mountains are hundreds of miles away from Bismarck they still have a huge influence on the weather Temperatures lately in the Bismarck-Mandan area have been on the cool side especially overnight but today we re enjoying some much warmer weather thanks to the Rocky Mountains Ryan - Right now the winds are predominately from the west which means all of the moistrure and air from the pacific is blowing over the Rockies and then spills onto North Dakota Hutch - You may have heard of this wind called a Chinook wind which comes from the Native American language and Chinook means snow eater The warming power of these westerly downsloping winds is so strong we can see some huge temperature jumps in a short amount of time Ryan - Here s how the Chinook wind works Take a fifty degree airmass from the Pacific Northwest As it moves up over the mountains it expands cools and all the water in it precipitates out as rain or snow on the mountain Now as the airmass drops down the otherside it s much cooler and its drier but as it falls it compresses which actually warms the air and we get very warm temperatures over North Dakota Hutch - Chinook Winds help temperatures warm up quite rapidly and we can see a huge temperature variation from the east to west across the state Today s highs in the east are in the 50 s while we hit the 80 s in southwestern North Dakota Ryan and Hutch say to expect the temperatures to be fairly warm for one more day as the Chinook continues as long as winds are from the west