| Term: | levante |
| Definition: |
The Spanish and most widely used term for an east or northeast wind occurring along the coast and inland from southern France to the Straits of Gibraltar. It is moderate or fresh (not as strong as the gregale), mild, very humid, overcast, and rainy; it occurs with a depression over the western Mediterranean Sea. In summer it is rare and weak; in January it is inhibited by the Iberian anticyclone. It is most frequent from February to May and October to December. A levant (French spelling) with fine weather is a levant blanc; in the Roussillon region of southern France (where, as along the Catalonian coast of Spain, it is called llevant) it often brings floods in the mountain streams. The levanter of the Gibraltar Straits is a related phenomenon. Compare leste, lombarde, levantera. |