A chubasco is a violent

squall A squall is a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed lasting minutes, as opposed to a wind gust, which lasts for only seconds. They are usually associated with active weather, such as rain showers, thunderstorms, or heavy snow. Squalls refer to the ...

with thunder and lightning, encountered during the rainy season along the Pacific coast of

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. The word chubasco has its origins in the Portuguese word '' chuva'' which means rain. The

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

storms that regularly pass over the southwestern United States, including the southern regions of Arizona and New Mexico, are sometimes referred to as chubascos.''Mohave Daily Miner'', Sep 2, 1984.https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=943&dat=19840902&id=EIALAAAAIBAJ&sjid=S1MDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3278,11733 In the northern parts of Mexico, especially the northeast and north central, the word chubasco is used especially for suddenly occurring localised storms that produce very strong winds, sometimes as much as 90 miles per hour, and intense rains of as much as 5-6 inches in less than an hour. Straight-line winds can topple windmills and break large limbs of large, sometimes ancient trees. The phenomenon normally occurs during the hottest days of the year (May through October).

References

Climate of Mexico Weather events in North America {{Meteorology-stub