sirocco

Sirocco, scirocco, or, rarely, siroc (see below) is a Mediterranean wind that comes from the Sahara and can reach hurricane speeds in North Africa and Southern Europe, especially during the summer season. Names Sirocco derives from šurūq, verbal noun of šaraqa, related to the East, aš-šarq. Various names for this wind in other languages include: or , or romanized: sirókos or rarely širok Serbian: jugo (Latin) / југо (Cyrillic), lit. 'southern' or Libyan Arabic: , romanized: , which means 'coming from the Qibla' , which means 'fifty' ('fifty-day wind') , probably from with the same meaning as ; or , pronounced širguī The Roman poet Horace refers to the sirocco at Trevico in Apulia as "Atabulus" (a Messapic word) in his account of his journey to Brundisium in 37 BC. Development Siroccos arise from warm, dry, tropical air masses that are pulled northward by low-pressure cells moving eastward across the Mediterranean Sea, with the wind originating in the Arabian or Sahara deserts. The hotter, drier continental air mixes with the cooler, wetter air of the maritime cyclone, and the counter-clockwise circulation of the low propels the mixed air across the southern coasts of Europe.