ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Föhn wind

Okay kiddo, let me tell you about a special kind of wind called the föhn wind.

It's like when you blow on something to cool it down, right? Well, the föhn wind does the opposite – it blows warm air and makes things feel hotter!

Now let's pretend we're in the mountains, up really high. The air gets colder the higher up we go, right? So if we're on one side of the mountain and there's a lot of wind blowing towards the mountain, the air has to go up over the top of the mountain to get to us.

As it goes up, the air gets even colder and it makes clouds and sometimes rain or snow. But when that air gets over the top of the mountain and starts to go down the other side, something really cool happens.

The air gets compressed and it gets really warm! This is the föhn wind. It can make the temperature go up by 20 or even 30 degrees!

The föhn wind is important because it can help melt snow and ice really fast. And it can also bring in dry air, which is good for people who have trouble breathing in humid air.

But sometimes, the föhn wind can be too strong and cause damage, like starting forest fires. So we have to be careful and pay attention to the weather when we know it's coming.

And that's the basic idea about the föhn wind – it's a special kind of wind that brings warm and dry air down a mountain, and makes things feel hotter!