Chinook winds /ÊÉªËnÊk/ , or simply chinooks, are foehn winds in the interior West of North America, where the Canadian Prairies and Great Plains meet various mountain ranges, although the original usage is in reference to wet, warm coastal winds in the Pacific Northwest.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.