Marseilles. The not-so-stupid question: is the 3/6/9 mistral day rule true?
Through Arthur sabatier
Published on
An old Marseille belief asserts that when the mistral says “hello” (when it begins to blow during the day) it is there for 3, 6 or 9 days. And when the mistral says “good evening” (when it begins to blow in the evening), it is there “until tomorrow evening”.
Thereby, a morning mistral would mean three windy days, a fourth morning would be the sign of six consecutive days and, you get the song, the seventh windy morning would herald nine windy days.
Does this 3/6/9 rule hold true? A not so stupid question …
The mistral: how does it work?
Impossible to really know where this myth comes from but, Paul Marquis, meteorologist for The weather forecast for the 13th and weather expert with marine firefighters, can enlighten us on the nature of this vent characteristic of Provence.
This wind is due to depression, a vacuum that is created in the air and forms a corridor. Naturally, this void is filled by a wind, because as Paul Marquis says: “Nature a horror of the void”. In the case of the mistral, a corridor is formed by a depression to the great of Italy, forming a powerful mistral, which lasts only a short time and which start towards Valence.
Less powerful mistral, but lasting longer, is generated by depressions coming from Northern Europe.
We can blame it for many things, but the mistral has the great quality of hunter the clouds, which contributes to the sunny climate of Provence. However, some dark clouds resist it, we then speak of black mistral, a phenomenon that can be observed especially in Corsica.
Or, it is completely impossible to predict the exact duration of a period of mistral. This is very variable and can last only a few hours up to several days. The longest episode ever recorded took place in Avignon (Vaucluse) where the wind blew for 28 days. The 3/6/9 day rule is therefore unfounded, this is just a myth.
The climate disrupts the behavior of the mistral
“I remember when I was in college, we knew thatafter a day of rain, there would be two days of mistral. The warming climate has changed that, ”says Paul Marquis.
Indeed, air warming affect atmospheric pressure, which displaces depressions at the origin of the mistral, its behavior is therefore not the same. In addition, it rains on average less and less in autumn, which also affects this phenomenon.
The legend of the origin of the mistral
The legends of the ancients take us to the marshes of Vivarais. Under the arch of a ratchet, hides the mistral. For decades, it had been growing in the marshes, and gusting towards the south, then joining the lair of its rock. One day, the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, worried about their roofs and their crops, decided to enclose the mistral in its rock. They nailed strong olive planks to barricade the rock.
Furious, he threatened the villagers to destroy their village as soon as he managed to break free. He made the prediction that without him everything would become desolation, that their lands would be infested with mosquitoes and that the fever would kill children and old people… But the inhabitants kept the Mistral locked in its den.
Summer came and the predictions turned out to be true. Struck by the disease, the villagers realize that the mistral is drying up the marshes, causing the mosquitoes to breed and dispel the clouds, helping the fruits to ripen. The mistral spoke up and promised that if the villagers gave it back its freedom, it would not uproot the fruit trees and dismantle the roofs. The perplexed inhabitants finally released him. Respecting its promise, the mistral went off to blow towards the plains of the south.
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