Word: foehn
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Irrational Behavior. Santa Ana-like phenomena are not confined to Southern California. Similar hot, dry wind sweeping down mountain slopes is called "foehn" (pronounced, approximately, fain) in Austria and Germany, "chinook" along the U.S. and Canadian Rockies, "sky sweeper" on Majorca, "khamsin" in Israel, and "the Canterbury northwester" in New Zealand...
Wherever they blow, the winds stir strange human actions. In Munich, as in Los Angeles, most residents are convinced that the foehn causes general lassitude, irrational behavior, suicides and an increase in crime. Israelis swear that headaches, asthma, high blood pressure, mental aberrations and other assorted ills are accentuated during the khamsin. In Sicily and some Arab nations, courts have considered the hot, dry winds as mitigating circumstances for those accused of crimes committed while they blow...