In the depths of a plains winter, relief occasionally arrives from an unexpected quarter. In the western counties, a warm, dry wind can pour down off the higher ground to the west — the chinook, which the old-timers aptly nicknamed the snow-eater. Within hours the temperature may leap dozens of degrees, and a landscape locked in snow can turn to bare brown ground and running water.

The Snow-Eater's Sudden Gift

The transformation is startling to witness: icicles pouring, drifts collapsing, cattle standing content in a sudden thaw that feels like a stolen day of spring dropped into January. The warmth comes from the wind's descent, which compresses and heats the air as it sinks toward the plains, drying it and warming it in a single stroke.

From the almanac's reckoning:

• The chinook is a warm, dry wind that descends from higher western ground.
• It can raise temperatures dozens of degrees and melt snow in hours.
• Old-timers nicknamed it the snow-eater for good reason.

The reprieve is usually brief, and the cold returns to reclaim its own, but a chinook can lift the spirits of a winter-weary country like little else. The almanac counts the snow-eater among the plains' most welcome surprises — a warm hand laid, however briefly, on the coldest of seasons.