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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

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

Just after that a sort of a white squall struck the ship, and the old man give just the wrong orders.

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 11, No. 22, January, 1873 by Various

“Something uncommonly like a white squall, sir,” hurriedly explained Jackson.

From The White Squall A Story of the Sargasso Sea by Schonberg, J.

The paragraph stated that the vessel was struck by a white squall, thrown on her beam ends and literally capsized; the captain was Norman's brother.

From The Shellback's Progress In the Nineteenth Century by Runciman, Walter