vendaval

plural vendavals · alternative vendavel

1. A westerly wind, especially one that blows into the Mediterranean Sea around the area of the Straits of Gibraltar and Morocco, or a similar wind in the Philippines.

   The vendaval occurs mainly in the cool season, and it is most frequent from October to November and February to March.

   1975, United States. Defense Mapping Agency. Hydrographic Center, Sailing Directions (planning Guide) for the Mediterranean, page 49

   3 more examples

   The vendaval gives unequivocal signs of its approach. If the easterly wind be blowing, it will veer to the S.E., the sky will become obscured and the coast concealed, […]

   1870, R. H. Wyman, Winds, currents, and navigation of the Gulf of Cadiz, the Western Coast of the Spanish Peninsula, and the Strait of Gibraltar, page 4

   Setting sail, then, with the vendaval, within a short time they reached the outside of the channel . The ships sailing from Manila do not do this, and are much delayed, because they must run a greater distance within the channel and among ...

   1905, Emma Helen Blair, James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, page 175

   This navigation should not be made at any other season, for from June the vendavals blow, and they are contrary to the voyage. As a rule, these ships sail and are despatched at the end of February, or at the latest by the twentieth of March.

   1915, Emma Helen Blair, The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Relating to China and the Chinese