It is an anabatic sea-breeze wind which blows in the summer when the east Adriatic coast gets warmer than the sea. Similar names—maestral or maestro—are used for (although also mostly northwestern) a quite different wind in the Adriatic Sea. C'est bien connu, le mistral apporte froid et beau temps. It was borrowed from the Latin transmontanus and the Italian tramontana, meaning not just "across the mountains" but also "the North Star" (literally the star "above the mountains"), since the Alps marked the north for the Italic people. Its average speed during the day can reach about 50 km/h (31 mph) / 14 m/s (27 kn), calming noticeably at night. Le mistral est à peu de chose près le même type de vent que la tramontane, à la différence qu'il s'engouffre dans la vallée du Rhône. La durée de ces vents est corrélée à la durée du comblement de la dépression du golfe de Gênes, et les deux vents se maintiennent à peu près simultanément. The sunshine and dryness brought by the mistral have an important effect on the local vegetation. The mistral is usually accompanied by clear, fresh weather, and it plays an important role in creating the climate of Provence. According to French sources, the name was used in its present form at the end of the 13th century by Marco Polo, in 1298. This type of mistral usually blows for no more than one to three days. (2015). The conditions for a mistral are even more favorable when a cold rainy front has crossed France from the northwest to the southeast as far as the Mediterranean. Pour avoir un début de réponse, nous vous avons illustré le top 3 des rafales de vent pour les principales stations de la région : Source données : Météo-France. In Greece it is also known as maïstros or maïstráli and south-western Crete it is considered the most beneficial wind, said to blow only in daytime. Y a-t-il des stations de ski dans le Massif central ? L'anticyclone dirige vers les régions méditerranéennes un flux de nord-ouest à nord qui provoque l'advection de masses d'air froides et stables. When a low pressure front over the Mediterranean approaches the coast from the southeast, the weather can change quickly for the worse, and the mistral and its clear sky changes rapidly to an east wind bringing humid air and threatening clouds. La marmotte des Alpes se porte bien dans les Pyrénées. In the winter this is by far the coldest form of the mistral. The mistral played an important part in the life and culture of Provence from the beginning. In Spain the wind is called the tramuntana [tɾəmunˈtanə] or [tɾamunˈtana] in Catalan and tramontana [tɾamonˈtana] in Spanish, Galician and Basque. [7][8][9][10][11], Traditions in various countries and regions. It can reach speeds of more than 90 km/h (56 mph) / 25 m/s (49 kn), particularly in the Rhône Valley. It is a northeasterly or northerly winter wind that blows from the Alps and Apennines (South of the Alps) to the Italian coast. When this happens, the flow of air between the high and low pressure areas draws in a current of cold air from the north which accelerates through the lower elevations between the foothills of the Alps and the Cevennes. In Italy its etymology is still very much debated, and varies from region to region: on the Sorrento coast, for instance, reputedly, the name derives from the village Tramonti, from where, to an observer on the shore, the wind appears to blow after gathering pace down a narrow valley and, at the time when Flavio Gioia – believed by some historians to have perfected the sailors' compass – lived there in the 14th century and named the Mediterranean winds, the tramontana made it easier for fishing vessels to take swiftly to the sea and readily start their fishing campaigns. The word came to English from Italian tramontana, which developed from Latin trānsmontānus (trāns- + montānus), "beyond/across the mountains",[1] referring to the Alps in the North of Italy. This kind of mistral is often connected with a low pressure area in the Gulf of Genoa, and it can bring unstable weather to the Côte d'Azur and the east of Provence, sometimes bringing heavy snow to low altitudes in winter. Wunsch, Carl. The mistral noir occurs when the Azores High is extended and draws in unusually moist air from the northwest.