Which of the following is NOT correctly matched ?
(Wind) — (Country)

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Mistral — Australia is the pair that is NOT correctly matched. The Mistral is a European wind, not an Australian one: it is a cold, dry, often violent north-to-north-westerly that funnels down the Rhône valley in southern France, squeezed between the Massif Central and the Alps, and bursts out over the Gulf of Lion in the north-western Mediterranean. It brings clear skies with sharp drops in temperature and can batter the orchards and vineyards of Provence. Australia's own local winds carry quite different names — the hot northerly Brickfielder and the cool 'Southerly Buster' that follows it. Since the question asks for the WRONGLY matched pair, this is the answer.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This pair is correct, so it cannot be the answer. The Santa Ana is a hot, dry, dust-laden offshore wind that descends from the interior deserts through the mountain passes of southern California, warming as it sinks — the wind notorious for fanning Californian wildfires.  (b) Also correctly matched. The haboob is the intense dust-and-sand storm wind of Sudan, especially around Khartoum, and of the surrounding Saharan margin; the name comes from the Arabic root meaning 'to blow'.  (c) This is the pairing the standard local-wind tables used by Indian exam syllabi give — Yamo as a hot wind of Japan — so it is not the mismatch being sought. Even if the term is unfamiliar to you, option (d) is decisively wrong, and in a 'which is NOT matched' question one certain error beats three uncertainties.

Concept: Local (or regional) winds are short-lived air movements produced by local differences in pressure, relief and heating rather than by the planetary circulation. They fall into recognisable families: hot dry desert winds carrying dust (Haboob, Sirocco, Khamsin, Loo, Harmattan, Brickfielder), warm descending leeward winds of the föhn type that are dried and heated by compression as they sink (Föhn in the Alps, Chinook in the Rockies, Santa Ana in California, Zonda in Argentina), and cold winds that drain from a high, cold interior to a warmer sea (Mistral in the Rhône valley, Bora on the Adriatic).

State PCS 2019 Q45 — Geography PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q45 — Geography PYQ with Answer