Genesis 8:1

And the Lord brought a spirit upon the earth, and the water ceased (Genesis VIII, 1). I do not think this is said in such a way that we should understand the spirit as the name for wind. For the wind could not have dried up the flood. Otherwise, since the sea is stirred up daily by winds, it would certainly be emptied. For how could the sea, which had spread out over the whole earth in the flood, not be emptied by the force of the winds, if it had receded even to the pillars of Hercules, as they say, and the Great Sea was boiling up against the roofs of high mountains? Therefore, it is not doubtful that by the power of the invisible divine spirit, that flood was repressed, not by a gust of wind, but by celestial operation.

ON SEVERAL PECULIARITIES RELATING TO THE END OF THE FLOOD. — Concerning what is written: that after a hundred and fifty days the wind came upon the earth, and the waters ceased, and the fountains of the abyss and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain of heaven ceased ; These things took place after a hundred and fifty days, or all those things that began to happen after forty days of rain are recalled as a recapitulation, so that only one hundred and fifty days belonged to the fact that water grew during those days; or because it came from the fountains of the abyss, when it ceased also to rain, or because it remained in its height, while the wind did not dry it. On the other hand, the other things that are said there did not all take place after one hundred and fifty days, but the author recalls all those things that began to be realized from the moment in which the forty days ended. [Augustine of Hippo, Question on Genesis, PL 34,

But the Lord remembered Noah, and all the living creatures, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark, and caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters were diminished. This can be understood in the name of the Vivifying Spirit of God, of which it is said at the beginning: "And the Spirit of God was moving over the waters" (Genesis 1:2), regarding which there is no doubt that just as then, when the waters were gathered to one place, making the land dry, so also now, with the waters of the flood taken away, He once again revealed the face of the earth. This wind can also be called the Spirit, according to the following from the Psalmist: "He spoke and the stormy wind stood" (Psalm 107:25), by whose frequent blowing the waters are often caused to diminish or to be moved from their place; hence the passage from Exodus: "And when Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, the Lord caused it to go back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided" (Exodus 14:21).