What Is the Suette?
Local or regional winds have taken many names in many tongues: chinook, foehn, bora, sundowner, brickfielder. One example of a highly localized wind is the Suette of Nova Scotia, Canada.
The Suette is a strong southerly to easterly--mostly southeasterly--wind that periodically whips the northwestern near-shore of Cape Breton Island. This wind is driven by the ties between landscape and atmosphere.
The landscape in question, northwestern Cape Breton Island, is marked by a rather steep and nearly linear drop-off northwestward from the Cape Breton Highland to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
When strong southeasterly winds are predominant over Cape Breton Island--and this is almost always ahead of storms from the southwest--the wind drops off the Highland rather like water pouring over a low dam. This causes the wind flow to greatly accelerate in the area directly in the lee of the slope. Atmospheric stability affects the degree to which the Suette is accelerated compared to the regional wind as a whole.
Early Wednesday, the approach of yet another winter storm to Atlantic Canada loosed the Suette upon northwestern Cape Breton Island. At Grand Etang, near Cheticamp, southeasterly winds rose to gales for a few hours. Highest sustained speeds reached between 55 and 60 mph with gusts topping 80 mph. Winds then dropped off quickly as they veered to southerly.
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