It blows primarily in the summer from mid afternoon until late in the evening from the west to southwest, becoming quite gusty.
As the terrain is generally arid, the Washoe Zephyr typically lifts a considerable quantity of dust into the atmosphere.
The Washoe Zephyr runs contrary to the usual pattern of diurnal mountain slope winds (upslope daytime, downslope nighttime) and thus its exact mechanism is still being studied.
The heating causes a thermal low to develop which sets up a pressure gradient which induces the wind, pulling cooler air down from the High Sierra.
[1] The Washoe Zephyr first gained notoriety from a passage written by Mark Twain in his 1872 book Roughing It.