Why this word is great
SHAMAL — [Noun] A hot, dry, northwesterly wind that blows across Iraq and the Persian Gulf, especially during the summer. From Arabic شَمَال (šamāl, "north"), reflecting the wind's prevailing direction. Unlike the monsoon, with its dramatic, season-flipping deluge, or the sirocco, a transcontinental traveler freighted with Saharan dust, the shamal is a regional, desiccating constant. It is the gritty breath that hazes the sky over Baghdad with suspended soil, the unseen force that whips the Gulf’s waters into a relentless chop, and the oven-heat that presses against every wall for days on end—a patient, abrasive exhalation of the land itself, insisting there is no coolness left in the world.