Chinooks are generally called foehn winds by meteorologists and climatologists, and, regardless of name, can occur in most places on the leeward side of a nearby mountain range. They are called Chinook winds throughout most of inland western North America, particularly the Rocky Mountain region.he term is also used in the Puget Sound area of Washington. Chinook is not pronounced as it is east of the Cascades â shinook â but is in the original coastal pronunciation tshinook. The resulting outflow wind is more or less the opposite of British Columbia / Pacific Northwest Chinook.