What does chinook mean?
A chinook is a warm, dry wind that sweeps down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, most famously across southern Alberta and Montana. It forms when moist Pacific air rises over the mountains, loses its moisture, then warms rapidly as it descends and compresses on the leeward side. The effect can be dramatic: temperatures have been known to jump tens of degrees Celsius within hours, melting snow cover so quickly that the wind earned the nickname 'snoweater.' The word derives from the name of the Chinookan peoples of the Pacific Northwest and entered English through the fur-trade era, when it was also applied to a large Pacific salmon now commonly called the king salmon. In regions where it blows, the chinook is more than weather — it is a fixture of local culture, celebrated in place names, festivals, and everyday conversation as welcome relief from deep winter.
A warm, dry wind that descends the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, causing rapid rises in temperature and rapid snowmelt.
"The chinook arrived in Lethbridge overnight and left the streets bare and muddy by morning."
Chiefly used in western North America, especially Alberta and Montana.
A large Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), the largest species of its genus, also called the king salmon.
"They landed a thirty-pound chinook near the mouth of the river."
Usually appears in the phrase 'chinook salmon' outside specialist contexts.
A member of a Chinookan-speaking Indigenous people of the lower Columbia River.
"The Chinook traded extensively with ships arriving at the mouth of the Columbia."
Capitalized when referring to the people or their languages.
The Chinook Jargon, a pidgin trade language once widely spoken along the Pacific Northwest coast.
"Traders along the coast conducted much of their business in Chinook."
Historical usage; the jargon declined after the late nineteenth century.
Regular plural; 'chinooks' may refer either to repeated occurrences of the wind or to multiple fish.
"Several mild chinooks kept the passes open through January."
A chinook can raise the temperature in an Alberta town by more than 30°C in a single day — ranchers call it the 'snoweater' because it can strip the plains bare of snow overnight.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of chinook
The word comes from Chinuk, the name used by neighboring peoples — and recorded by early traders — for the Chinookan peoples who lived along the lower Columbia River in what is now Washington and Oregon. The ultimate root is believed to lie in a Salishan language, though the exact source word is not securely documented. During the nineteenth-century fur trade, the name spread through the region and gave rise to Chinook Jargon, a widely used pidgin trade language. The wind sense arose because such warm winds were associated with the Columbia River country from which they appeared to come to settlers farther inland.
How chinook is actually used
In Canada, especially Alberta, the chinook wind is strongly associated with local identity, and 'when the chinook comes in' is common regional speech. The word is always lowercase except when referring to the Indigenous people or their language, where capitalization follows standard conventions for ethnonyms. The salmon sense is usually qualified as 'chinook salmon'.
Easily confused with chinook
A foehn is the Alpine equivalent of a chinook — both are warm, dry downslope winds, but 'chinook' refers specifically to the North American phenomenon.