Piteraq

The Piteraq is a catabatic wind, which originates on the Greenland ice sheet and then flows down the east coast. The word "Piteraq" means "He who attacks you" in Greenland. Piteraqs occur most frequently in autumn and winter. Typical wind speeds are 50-80 m / s (180-288 km / h). On 6 February 1970 the municipality of Tasiilaq was met by the strongest documented Piteraq in Greenland. The estimated maximum speed was 90 m / s (324 km / h). The wind caused some storm damage. Since the beginning of the 1970s Piteraq warnings have been published by the Danish Meteorological Institute.

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Piteraqs occur particularly in weather conditions, when a gravure area moves northwards from the sea south-east of Greenland, the Irmingersee. As the air cools over the ice up to three kilometers high over Greenland, it sinks and burdens in the countryside, forming a high, the natural counter-pole of the low-lying low. In a low air is sucked up, it acts like an outflow of the air masses of a high. As the Greenland coast is heavily jagged by fjords, the flow of the air masses, which is channeled into a narrow valley, breaks the fjord, where most of the few settlements lie, like waves in a surf, which leads to a considerable acceleration Has. All the ice masses can be driven out of the fjord to the open sea. Edit source text Weblinks Edit sourcetext Single-level Edit source text

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