Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of or relating to the downward flow of cold dense air.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective meteorology, of airflow
Downslope on a mountainside.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective of an air current or wind; moving downward or down a slope because of cooling especially at night
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word katabatic.
Examples
-
He explained that this area had a permanent offshore gale called the katabatic – Greek for flowing downhill.
Deception Point Brown, Dan, 1964- 2001
-
He explained that this area had a permanent offshore gale called the katabatic—Greek for flowing downhill.
Deception Point Dan Brown 2001
-
These are referred to as katabatic winds and are narrow, strong regions of wind blowing from the cold mountain plateau of Greenland down the steep mountainsides and out over the ocean, causing large waves.
-
Still, there was the day when a 100 mph wind gust, known as a katabatic wind, ripped the tent Mortvedt was in from its stakes and sent him tumbling down the ice.
unknown title 2009
-
Still, there was the day when a 100 mph wind gust, known as a katabatic wind, ripped the tent Mortvedt was in from its stakes and sent him tumbling down the ice.
unknown title 2009
-
The winds, called katabatic winds, form as air slides down from the high plateau of Antarctica's interior and funnels into small drainages near the coast.
-
As this extremely cold, dense air sinks, it can get funneled through rugged channels in the ice and rock to become ferocious, deadly gusts called katabatic winds that howl toward the coast of Antarctica.
Livescience.com 2009
-
Personally I think 'katabatic' would be a good name for a cat ...
August 11th, 2006 dame_habonde 2006
-
It's on the receiving end of "katabatic" winds flowing virtually uninterrupted down the ice fields to the sea from the center of the continent.
-
Array them on the the sides of mountains and along the valleys to create katabatic tunnels and magnify the force and duration of the winds.
qms commented on the word katabatic
Phenomena purely climatic
Can seem to us eerily vatic.
That cold mountain breath
Doesn't whisper of death
It's merely a gust katabatic.
December 1, 2015
fbharjo commented on the word katabatic
parabatic anabatic
December 1, 2015
qms commented on the word katabatic
An excellent site for the naming of winds:
http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/wind/
December 1, 2015