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Khamsīn , chamsin or hamsin ((アラビア語:خمسين) ', "fifty"), more commonly known in Egypt as khamaseen ( ', ), is a dry, hot, sandy local wind, blowing from the south, in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Similar winds in the area are sirocco and simoom. From the Arabic word for "fifty", throughout the Levant, these dry, sand-filled windstorms often blow sporadically over fifty days, hence the name. When the storm passes over an area, the humidity in that area drops below 5%. Even in Winter, the temperatures went higher than 45 degrees Celsius due the the storms. ==The Causes and history== Khamsin can be triggered by cyclones that move eastwards along the southern parts of the Mediterranean or along the North African coast from February to June. In Egypt, khamsin usually arrives in April but occasionally occur between March to May, carrying great quantities of sand and dust from the deserts, with a speed up to 140 kilometers per hour, and a rise of temperatures as much as 20 °C in two hours.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.touregypt.net/climate.htm )〕 It is believed to blow "at intervals for about 50 days",〔''OED'' online.〕 although it rarely occurs "more than once a week and last for just a few hours at a time."〔Humphreys, Andrew (2002). ''Cairo''. Victoria: Lonely Planet. P. 19.〕 A 19th-century account of khamsin in Egypt goes: These winds, though they seldom cause the thermometer of Fahrenheit to rise above 95° in Lower Egypt, or in Upper Egypt 105°, are dreadfully oppressive, even to the natives. When the plague visits Egypt, it is generally in the spring; and the disease is most severe in the period of the khamáseen.〔Lane, Edward William (1973 ()). ''An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians''. With a new introduction by John Manchip White. New York: Dover Publications. P. 2.〕The same account relates that Muslims in Egypt "calculate the period of () ... to commence on the day immediately following the Coptic festival of Easter Sunday, and to terminate on the Day of Pentecost (or Whitsunday); an interval of forty-nine days."〔Lane, p. 488.〕 During Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, the French soldiers had a hard time with khamsin: when the storm appeared "as a blood-stint in the distant sky", the natives went to take cover, while the French "did not react until it was too late, then choked and fainted in the blinding, suffocating walls of dust."〔Burleigh, Nina (2007). ''Mirage''. New York: Harper. P. 135.〕 During the North African Campaign of the World War II, "allied and German troops were several times forced to halt in mid-battle because of sandstorms caused by khamsin ... Grains of sand whirled by the wind blinded the soldiers and created electrical disturbances that rendered compasses useless."〔DeBlieu, Jan (1998). ''Wind''. New York: Houghton Mifflin. P. 57.〕 In Israel, khamsin ((ヘブライ語:חמסין)) is known more formally as ' (), and the Biblical term for khamsin is ' () or "east wind". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Khamsin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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