We've often heard in this part of the country that if you don't like the weather, just be patient and it'll change. The past two days were cold and windy. Now we're experiencing a warm-up; temperatures are comfortable again. A NWS meteorologist was quoted today in the paper, "It's coming from a nice flow of air over the Rocky Mountains off of the Pacific Ocean. We call that a chinook. It's a classic chinook flow."
The most famous example of yearning for a chinook to bring an improvement in the weather was in the artwork of the Western artist Charlie Russell. In the winter of 1886-87 he drew a picture of an emaciated, hunch-backed, u-necked steer and titled it Waiting for a Chinook. He had been asked for his assessment of the conditions on the rangeland by somebody, and this picture was his wordless response.
A couple of years ago we were on a tour bus in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta. I had noticed something that looked like a wavy jet trail hanging just above the peaks. Our step-on guide called everyone's attention to it and said it was called a chinook arch. It was a phenomenon I'd never seen before. My favorite western singer, Ian Tyson, named his backup groupd The Chinook Arch Riders. I had always thought they were named after some rock formation. My dictionary etymology of the word chinook states it is a Salish name for the Chinook tribe in the Columbia River Valley. It doesn't say how it got associated with this warming wind, but we will go on enjoying it anyway.
