Sirocco

si-rok'ko, a hot, oppressive wind of Sicily and southern Italy. At certain seasons, particularly April and September, the sirocco blows from the south. It is no doubt a continuation of the African simoon. The sky grows hazy with reddish dust, and the wind is so depressing that people stay indoors to escape prostration. Three days is the extreme duration of a sirocco. It is a serious scourge to the husbandman. In Egypt this wind is called a Khamsin, meaning fifty, because it blows for fifty days. See Wind; Simoon; Chinook