Dry winds blowing from north-east and east to west of Sahara desert are known as:
- (a)Bora
- (b)Sirocco
- (c)Harmattan
- (d)Mistral
Correct — C, Harmattan.
The stem's own words carry the answer: dry winds "blowing from north-east and east to west of Sahara desert". The wind that fits is the Harmattan, a dry, dusty north-easterly that sweeps out of the Sahara across West Africa to the Gulf of Guinea coast in the northern winter, roughly late November to mid-March.
It is essentially the north-east trade wind reaching further south than usual. When the ITCZ shifts south in the northern winter, Saharan air pushes all the way to the coast; when the ITCZ moves north again, the moist south-west monsoon takes its place.
The idea to carry away: the Harmattan is the Sahara's wind that blows out over West Africa, dry and dusty. The Sirocco also starts over the Sahara but goes the other way, north into Europe; the Bora and Mistral are European winds.
- (a)Bora — The Bora is a cold, dry wind that pours down from the mountains onto the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, felt at Trieste and along the Croatian coast. Its north-easterly direction matches the stem, but its home is the Adriatic, not the Sahara.
It is the answer to the cold, dry wind of the eastern Adriatic coast.
- (b)Sirocco — The Sirocco also rises over the Sahara, but it blows the opposite way: south to north, across the Mediterranean into Italy, Malta, Sicily and southern Spain. Hot and dry over North Africa, it picks up moisture over the sea and arrives in Europe warm and humid.
It is the answer to the hot Saharan wind that reaches southern Europe across the Mediterranean.
- (d)Mistral — The Mistral is a cold, dry northerly wind that funnels down the Rhône valley to the Gulf of Lion in southern France. It is strong and dry, but it is a wind of the European side of the Mediterranean, blowing out to sea from France, not an African one.
It is the answer to the cold, dry wind of the Rhône valley and southern France.
Local winds are winds named for a particular region. They arise from local pressure contrasts, relief, or the seasonal swing of the pressure belts, as distinct from the planetary winds (trades, westerlies, polar easterlies) that circle the globe.
The Harmattan sits between the two categories. It is the north-east trade wind of the Sahara, but it earns a local name because of what it does when it reaches West Africa: dust haze and very low humidity through the dry season.
West Africa's year is split by which wind reaches it. In the northern winter the ITCZ lies far south, so the dry Harmattan from the Sahara dominates and gives the dry season. In the northern summer the ITCZ moves north and the moist south-west monsoon from the Gulf of Guinea brings the rains.
That is why the Harmattan matters beyond a name. It marks the dry season, its dust haze disrupts flights in Nigerian and Ghanaian cities, and the dry, dusty months coincide with the meningitis season of the Sahel.
- The Harmattan is a dry, dusty north-easterly wind that blows from the Sahara across West Africa towards the Gulf of Guinea coast.
- It is strongest in the northern winter, roughly late November to mid-March, when the ITCZ has shifted south.
- On the Guinea coast it is nicknamed 'the Doctor' because its dryness brings relief from the humid coastal air.
- Harmattan haze is Saharan dust lifted by the wind; it can cut visibility sharply and disrupt flights in West African cities.
- The Sirocco blows from the Sahara northward across the Mediterranean: hot and dry over North Africa, warm and humid by the time it reaches Italy and Malta.
- The Bora is a cold, dry north-easterly wind on the eastern Adriatic coast, notably at Trieste.
- The Mistral is a cold, dry northerly wind funnelled down the Rhône valley to the Gulf of Lion in southern France.
Two winds start over the Sahara: the Harmattan heads out over West Africa, the Sirocco north into Europe. The Bora and Mistral are European winds.
- Using dryness as the discriminator: the Bora and Mistral are dry too, and the Sirocco is dry where it leaves the Sahara. What settles the question is region and direction — out of the Sahara's north-east, westward over West Africa.
- Mixing up the two Saharan winds: the Sirocco also originates over the Sahara, but it blows northward across the Mediterranean into Europe, while the Harmattan blows the opposite way, over West Africa.
- Matching 'north-east' to the Bora: the Bora is also north-easterly, but it belongs to the Adriatic coast; direction alone, without the Sahara, points to the wrong continent.
The idea appears as a name-the-wind item: a region and a character (hot or cold, dry or humid, the direction) are given and four local wind names are offered. It can also be reversed — a wind is named and its region or nickname is asked — or set as a match-the-pairs list.
Reading the stem for the region first, then the direction, and after that the temperature or dryness, sorts the four names quickly.
CDS_GK_2020_I_Q372020Same device — name the local wind from its region and character — and two of the names overlap (Bora and Mistral appear in both). There the keyed answer is the Bora, the cold, dry wind falling onto the eastern Adriatic shore; here the Bora is a distractor and the region is the Sahara and West Africa.
UPSC_2009_GS1_Q382009Tests the mechanism, not the name: statement 1 (tropical deserts on western continental margins within the trade-wind belt) is correct. The Harmattan is that north-east trade wind blowing out of the Sahara. UPSC asks why the desert is there; UKPSC asks what the wind leaving it is called.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which local wind is nicknamed 'the Doctor' on the Guinea coast of West Africa because its dryness relieves the humid coastal air?
- (a)Sirocco
- (b)Harmattan
- (c)Mistral
- (d)Bora
Answerb — The Harmattan is the dry, dusty Saharan wind that reaches the Guinea coast in the northern winter and earned the nickname 'the Doctor' there. The Sirocco reaches southern Europe, not the Guinea coast; the Mistral belongs to the Rhône valley and the Bora to the Adriatic coast, on the European side of the Mediterranean. - practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following pairs of a local wind and the region where it blows is correctly matched?
- (a)Mistral — eastern Adriatic coast
- (b)Bora — Rhône valley of France
- (c)Sirocco — from the Sahara across the Mediterranean to southern Europe
- (d)Harmattan — southern France
Answerc — The Sirocco rises over the Sahara and blows north across the Mediterranean into Italy, Malta and Spain. Option a gives the Mistral the Bora's home (the Adriatic coast), and option b gives the Bora the Mistral's home (the Rhône valley). Option d sends the Harmattan to Europe, whereas it blows over West Africa. - practice — not a real PYQ
Consider the following statements about the Harmattan: 1. It blows from the Sahara towards the Gulf of Guinea coast. 2. It is a warm, humid wind that brings the rainy season to West Africa. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Answera — Statement 1 is correct: the Harmattan is the north-easterly that sweeps from the Sahara to the Guinea coast. Statement 2 describes the opposite wind: the moist south-west monsoon from the Gulf of Guinea brings the rains, while the Harmattan is dry, dusty and marks the dry season.Options b and c accept statement 2, and option d rejects statement 1.