Loo (wind)

The Loo is a strong, dusty, gusty, hot and dry summer wind from the west which blows over the Indo-Gangetic Plain region of North India and Pakistan.

[1] Since it causes extremely low humidity and high temperatures, the Loo also has a severe drying effect on vegetation leading to widespread browning in the areas affected by it during the months of May and June.

[4] The arrival of monsoon clouds in any location is frequently accompanied with cloudbursts,[5] and the sudden transformation of the landscape from brown to green can seem "astonishing" as a result of the ongoing deluge and the abrupt cessation of the Loo.

Windows shielded with fiber-screens of the fragrant khas (ख़स/خس or vetiver) dry-grass that are kept damp with a simple water-pumping mechanism are quite effective as an inexpensive form of air conditioning, and have been in common use throughout the plain portions of the northern Indian subcontinent for centuries.

Even prior to the 1897 discovery that mosquitoes transmitted malaria, officials in Asia had noticed the strong winds in the plains of Northernmost India naturally made the region relatively free of the disease.