In the traditional model of ridge-valley winds, there are typically two wind regimes on a dry day: a downslope, drainage wind at night due to cooling at the surface along the slopes, and an upslope wind during the day due to solar heating of the slopes. This study presents observations from South Park, a broad, flat basin in the Colorado Rockies. The observations consist of time sequences of surface observations, surface mesonet analyses, and vertical atmospheric soundings using a tethered balloon system. On a typical dry day in South Park, three wind regimes were observed: the downslope regime, the upslope regime, and a late morning or afternoon wind which corresponded in direction to the winds above the ridgetops. Because the gradient and ridgetop winds were most frequently from the west, we have called these winds the “afternoon westerues.” The afternoon westerlies occur in conjunction with a deep (2–3 km or more) afternoon convective boundary layer in which momentum (and other properties) are...
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Banta et al. (1981) studied this question.