Simoom

Simoom or Saimum ( samūm; from the root s-m-m, "to poison") is a strong, hot, dry, dust-laden wind. The word is generally used to describe a local wind that blows in the Sahara, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and the deserts of Arabian Peninsula. Its temperature may exceed and the relative humidity may fall below 10%.

Simoom or Saimum ( samūm; from the root s-m-m, "to poison") is a strong, hot, dry, dust-laden wind. The word is generally used to describe a local wind that blows in the Sahara, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and the deserts of Arabian Peninsula. Its temperature may exceed and the relative humidity may fall below 10%. ==Name== Alternative spellings include samoon, samun, simoun, and simoon. Another name used for this wind is samiel (Turkish samyeli from Arabic sāmm سامّ meaning poisonous and Turkish yel meaning wind ). An alternative type occurring in the region of Central Asia is known as "Garmsil" (гармсель). The name means "poison wind" and is given because the sudden onset of simoom may also cause heat stroke. This is attributed to the fact that the hot wind brings more heat to the body than can be disposed of by the evaporation of perspiration. ==Description== The Nuttall Encyclopædia described the simoom: The storm moves in cyclone (circular) form, carrying clouds of dust and sand, and produces on humans and animals a suffocating effect. A 19th-century account of simoom in Egypt reads: Egypt is also subject, particularly during the spring and summer, to the hot wind called the "samoom," which is still more oppressive than the khamasin winds, but of much shorter duration, seldom lasting longer than a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. It generally proceeds from the south-east or south-south-east, and carries with it clouds of dust and sand. ===In contemporary culture=== In Patrick O'Brian's novel Post Captain (1972), Diana Villiers' mentally troubled cousin, Edward Lowndes, upon learning that Doctor Maturin is a naval surgeon, remarks, "Very good – you are upon the sea but not in it: you are not an advocate for cold baths. The sea, the sea! Where should we be without it? Frizzled to a mere toast, sir; parched, desiccated by the simoom, the dread simoom." A song titled "Simoon" features on the Yellow Magic Orchestra's eponymously titled album that was released in 1978¹. The Creatures have a song called "Simoom" on their 1989 album Boomerang, with lyrics such as "Simoom, simoom... you breathe in suffocation / Relentless simoom, blow and whistle this tune". In the film The English Patient (1996) there is a scene in which Count László Almásy regales Katharine Clifton with histories of named winds, one of them being the "Simoon." Alluding to the records of Herodotus, Almásy tells Katharine that there was once a certain Arabic people who deemed the "Simoon" so evil that they marched out to meet it ranked as an army, "their swords raised." In the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, a card named "Simoon" first appeared in the Visions expansion set on a fictional continent of Jamuraa. This card saw play in the sideboard of contemporary Type II decks and was especially effective against the popular Five Colours Green decks that heavily relied on small creatures with toughness of 1.

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