white squall

American  

[hwahyt skwawl, wahyt] / ˈʰwaɪt ˈskwɔl, ˈwaɪt /

noun

Meteorology, Nautical.

1. a maritime squall whose approach is indicated by whitecaps and turbulent water rather than by the clouds that usually accompany a squall.

   The sudden fogs, white squalls, and terrible ice storms made navigating Lake Superior treacherous.

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white squall British  

noun

1. a violent highly localized weather disturbance at sea, in which the surface of the water is whipped to a white spray by the winds

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Etymology

Origin of white squall

First recorded in 1770–75

Example Sentences

Whereupon a gigantic waterspout, which is the devilish eye of a "white squall," which is something that makes a typhoon seem a trifle, hits the ship squarely.

From Time Magazine Archive

Then she ran into a "white squall," a killer blast of 90-m.p.h. wind and water.

From Time Magazine Archive

“That white squall last night saved our lives, for I was mastered.”

From Yussuf the Guide The Mountain Bandits; Strange Adventure in Asia Minor by Schonberg, John

And I have seen the same vessel, but a short hour after, drifting on in the darkness to the pitiless rocks before a white squall.

From Harry Milvaine The Wanderings of a Wayward Boy by Stables, Gordon

A peculiar squall, accompanied with rain and lightning, similar in suddenness to the white squall of the West Indies, and experienced off the equatorial region of the west coast of Africa between December and June.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir