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Mistral

Weather
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A cold, dry northwesterly wind that blows through southern France toward the Mediterranean.

Detailed Definition
The mistral is a strong, cold wind that channels down the Rhône Valley and across southern France, often bringing clear skies after turbulent weather. Its persistence can chill villages, bend trees, and scour the landscape with dry force. A poet may use the mistral to convey severity and purification, or to set human warmth against a vast, impersonal current of air.
Example
Example in poetry:
The mistral rushed down the Rhône valley, clearing the sky to a hard blue; “Mistral through the plane trees made the village bells sound thin,” uses the wind to animate a Provençal setting; A poet can let the mistral’s dry force mirror a speaker’s impatience or restlessness; After the mistral, the sharp light and swept-clean streets can symbolize clarity after confusion
Additional Notes
The mistral is a famous regional wind of southern France; its cold dryness can convey cleansing harshness or isolation.
Other Meanings of “Mistral”
Also Known As
Northwest Wind Provençal Wind Cold Mediterranean Wind Maestral
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