Many locations to the lee of mountain ranges in the Western United States occasionally experience destructive windstorms. The mesoscale dynamical processes giving rise to these events are now fairly well understood, but forecasting them remains a vexing prediction problem in many areas. Operational numerical models are only just now beginning to hint at such small-scale detail, and that not reliably, requiring forecasters to venture into realms beyond simple examination of model output. The theory of this phenomenon, based as it is on gravity-wave dynamics and experiments with simplified numerical models applied to idealized flow configurations, can be forbidding to the unprepared, and is sometimes difficult to apply in the operational setting. In this context I will review some current approaches to this problem and future directions that appear fruitful.
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