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Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hours, to global winds resulting from the difference in absorption of solar energy between the climate ...
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The boundary between these two areas is called a front. The complex relationships between fronts cause different types of wind and weather patterns.
Prevailing winds are winds that blow from a single direction over a specific area of the Earth. Areas where prevailing winds meet are called convergence zones. Generally, prevailing winds blow east-west rather than north-south. This happens because Earths rotation generates what is known as the Coriolis effect. The Coriolis effect makes wind system...
The Earth contains five major wind zones: polar easterlies, westerlies, horse latitudes, trade winds, and the doldrums. The horse latitudes are a narrow zone of warm, dry climates between westerlies and the trade winds. Horse latitudes are about 30 and 35 degrees north and south. Many deserts, from the rainless Atacama of South America to the arid ...
Polar easterlies are dry, cold prevailing winds that blow from the east. They emanate from the polar highs, areas of high pressure around the North and South Poles. Polar easterlies flow to low-pressure areas in sub-polar regions.
Westerlies have an enormous impact on ocean currents, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. Driven by westerlies, the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) rushes around the continent (from west to east) at about 4 kilometers per hour (2.5 miles per hour). In fact, another name for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the West Wind Drift. T...
Trade winds are the powerful prevailing winds that blow from the east across the tropics. Trade winds are generally very predictable. They have been instrumental in the history of exploration, communication, and trade. Ships relied on trade winds to establish quick, reliable routes across the vast Atlantic and, later, Pacific Oceans. Even today, sh...
In 1947, Norwegian explorer Thor Hyerdahl and a small crew used trade winds to travel from the coast of Peru to the coral reefs of French Polynesia, more than 6,920 kilometers (4,300 miles), in a sail-powered raft. The expedition, named after the raft (Kon-Tiki) aimed to prove that ancient mariners could have used predictable trade winds to explore...
Besides ships and rainfall, trade winds can also carry particles of dust and sand for thousands of kilometers. Particles from Saharan sand and dust storms can blow across islands in the Caribbean Sea and the U.S. state of Florida, more than 8,047 kilometers (5,000 miles) away. Dust storms in the tropics can be devastating for the local community. V...
Wind traveling at different speeds, different altitudes, and over water or land can cause different types of patterns and storms.
Jet streams are geostrophic winds that form near the boundaries of air masses with different temperatures and humidity. The rotation of the Earth and its uneven heating by the sun also contribute to the formation of high-altitude jet streams. These tropical storms have a spiral shape. The spiral (swirling counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemispher...
A hurricane is a giant, spiraling tropical storm that can pack wind speeds of over 257 kph (160 mph) and unleash more than 9 trillion liters (2.4 trillion gallons) of rain. These same tropical storms are known as hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, cyclones in the northern Indian Ocean, and typhoons in the western Pacific Ocean.
When a tropical depression speeds up to 63-117 kph (39-73 mph), it is known as a tropical storm, and is given a name. Meteorologists name the storms in alphabetical order, and alternate with female and male names.
When a storm reaches 119 kph (74 mph), it becomes a hurricane and is rated from 1 to 5 in severity on the Saffir Simpson scale. A Category 5 hurricane is the strongest storm possible on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Winds of a Category 5 blow at 252 kph (157 mph). Hurricane Ethel, the strongest hurricane in recorded history, roared across the Gulf of M...
The best defense against a hurricane is an accurate forecast that gives people time to get out of its way. The National Hurricane Center issues hurricane watches for storms that may endanger communities, and hurricane warnings for storms that will reach land within 24 hours.
- Trade Winds. Trade winds are the dominating patterns of easterly surface winds present at the tropics in the direction of the Earth’s equator. The trade winds primarily blow from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere and from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere.
- Monsoon Winds. Monsoons are the seasonal wind in southern Asia blowing from the southwest (bringing rain) in summer and from the northeast in winter. These winds last for many months within the tropical regions.
- Polar Easterlies. The polar easterlies are also referred to as polar Hadley cells. They are the prevailing cold and dry winds that propel from the high-temperature regions of the polar heights at the south and north poles moving towards the low-pressure regions within the westerlies at high latitudes.
- The Westerlies. The Westerlies are the winds in the middle latitudes in the ranges of 35 to 65 degrees. These winds blow from the west to the east and determine the traveling directions of extratropical cyclones in a similar direction.
Jul 18, 2005 · Where does wind come from? Chris Weiss, assistant professor of atmospheric science at Texas Tech University, explains. Simply put, wind is the motion of air molecules. Two concepts are...
Jan 22, 2018 · Temperature and pressure are critical factors affecting why the wind blows where it does. Understanding the nature of wind can teach us a lot about weather.
A geostrophically balanced wind (cone-headed arrow) aloft (e.g., jet stream) in the northern hemisphere. The only forces acting on the wind are the pressure gradient (green arrow) and the...
Wind is the horizontal motion of the air past a given point. Winds begin with differences in air pressures. When air pressure is higher at one place than another, it sets up a force. This force pushes from the high pressure towards the lower pressure. The greater the difference in pressures, the stronger the force.
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