SQUALL

sudden wind-speed increase of 8 metres per second (18 miles per hour) or more, to a peak speed of 11 metres per second (25 miles per hour) or more, for one minute or longer. It includes several briefer wind-speed changes, or gusts. A squall is often named after the weather phenomenon that accompanies it, such as rain, hail, or thunder; a line squall is one associated with a squall line of thunderstorms that is often hundreds of kilometres long. Cold air descending from slopes produces some squalls, such as the bora on the Adriatic coast of Italy and the Balkans; moving cold fronts cause others, such as the norther in North America.