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The Plenivistulian dunes were formed simultaneously with loesses. Itcan be supposed that both these types of deposits and aeolian relief forms were formed by the same winds blowing from the same directions. However, in Poland the opinions of loess-forming wind direction are contrasting: either easterlies (Maruszczak 1967) or westerlies were assumed to be loess-forming winds (Lindner 1971,1972,1976; Chlebowski, Lindner 1976). Only this latter viewpoint was reliably documented. The investigations madę by the mentioned authors in the region of the Holy Cross Mountains indicate that sandy streaks occur in the westemmost parts of loess patches stretched in the W-E direction. Sand came from sandstone crags bearing strong traces of corrasion, which occur in the western side of loess patches. The area of these crags was a kind of “deflation basin” for loesses. Western palaeo-wind direction was also confirmed by mineralogical studies; in one of loess patches the gamet content decreases and the muscovite content inereases eastwards.

The opinions of the atmospheric circulation regimes in Europę during the Pleniglacial are different. H.H. Mayer and C. Kottmeier (1989) postulated a western palaeo-wind direction in West Europę, and eastem one in the area eastwards of the Elbę River. Recently H.H. Christiansen and H. Svensson (1998) examined windpolished boulders in Denmark, and inferred that east-erly winds (105°±20°) prevailed in the lastpart of the Plenivistulian (22-17 ka BP). These conclusions aroused a discussion (Vandenberghe et al. 1999). The methodology of those studies was also doubtful. It can be supposed that only the WNW-ESE orientation could be derived from the aeolian fcatures on boulders. The proposed ESE direction of relief-forming winds was based on the assumption of the dominance of anticyclonal winds related to the ice sheet.

The opinion of a great, and even dominant role of anticyclonal winds should be verified in the light of the latest invcstigations. Katabatic winds were also important though their spatial extent was limited. These local winds were typical of a relati vcly narrow zonę (up to 50 km wide) near the ice front (Van-denberghe et al. 1999). In the opinion of Brodzikowski (1987) during the Vistulian the westerly circulation occurred in West and Central Europę, south of the ice sheet. This wind direction was linked with cyclones, which moved from west to east. Therefore, the Atlantic Ocean conditioned the type of atmospheric circulation in Europę, just as at the present time. The investigations of the Plenivistu!ian dunes in Poland confirm the opinion about the dominance of westerly circulation.