A squall is a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed which is usually associated with active weather, such as rain showers, thunderstorms, or heavy snow. Squalls refer to an increase in the sustained winds over a short time interval, as there may be higher gusts during a squall event. They usually occur in a region of strong mid-level height falls,^{[clarification needed]} or mid-level tropospheric cooling, which force strong localized upward motions at the leading edge of the region of cooling, which then enhances local downward motions just in its wake.

The word appears to be Nordic in origin, but its etymology is considered obscure. It probably has its roots in the word skvala an Old Norse word meaning literally, to squeal.

The term "squall" is universally used to refer to a sudden wind-speed increase, both historically and in the present day. In 1962 the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) defined that to be classified as a squall, the wind must increase at least 8 m/s and must attain a top speed of at least 11 m/s, lasting at least one minute in duration. In Australia, a squall is defined to last for several minutes before the wind returns to the long term mean value. In either case, a squall is defined to last about half as long as the definition of sustained wind in its respective country. Usually, this sudden violent wind is associated with briefly heavy precipitation.

Kyosuke Himuro (氷室 京介, Himuro Kyōsuke^?, born October 7, 1960 in Takasaki, Gunma, Japan) is a Japanese singer. He was a member of the rock group Boøwy from 1981 to 1988. After the group disbanded he started a successful solo career. In 2003, HMV Japan ranked Himuro at number 76 on their list of the 100 most important Japanese pop acts. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California, where he purchased a palatial residence in Beverly Hills in 2004, which was previously owned by Shaquille O'Neal.

He has frequently played music with Steve Stevens, best known as the backing guitarist Billy Idol. For example, Stevens participated in Himuro's album as a guitarist and his concert tour after his album I·De·A.

On August 22, 2004, he held a concert, entitled "21st Century Boøwys VS Himuro", at the Tokyo Dome. He sang many Boøwy songs, the first time in sixteen years.

"Wild Romance" was used as the ending theme music for the Japanese dubbed version of Van Helsing.

Most recently, Himuro's song "Calling", from his 1989 album Neo Fascio, was used in the ending credits to the highly anticipated 2005 CG Film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. The film's director Tetsuya Nomura has noted that Himuro's music has been highly influential in his own work, and when asked about his contribution to the film, Himuro said that he was happy his work would be used in "the best CG movie ever made in Japan".

Piano Squall (born March 8, 1983) is the stage name of Michael Gluck, a concert pianist who performs music from video games and anime to fundraise for charity^{[citation needed]}.

Michael Gluck was born in Hollywood, Florida. At the age of nine, he became fascinated with the music of Nobuo Uematsu—a Japanese composer who wrote the soundtrack to the popular Final Fantasy video game series. Gluck was so inspired by the music of Final Fantasy that he decided to study piano so that he could learn to play it. Because the availability of sheet music for video game soundtracks was extremely limited at the time, Gluck quickly developed the ability to translate what he was hearing in the game onto the piano by ear. Over the years, he continued to write down his arrangements and ultimately created an extensive music library from a wide variety of video games and anime.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003, Gluck gave his first public concert at Anime USA in Arlington, Virginia. As of 2008, Gluck had been a musical guest at more than thirty anime conventions, including Sakura-Con '06 and '07, A-Kon '06, and Otakon '05, where he performed for an audience of three thousand people. He continues to tour at conventions throughout North America.