Wind
By: Alex Leon
What is Wind?
Wind is air in motion. It is produced by the uneven heating of the earth’s surface by the sun. Since the earth’s surface is made of various land and water formations, it absorbs the sun’s radiation unevenly. Two factors are necessary to specify wind: speed and direction.
Land Breezes
A land breeze is a type of wind that blows from the land to the ocean. When there is a temperature difference between the land surface and the ocean, winds will move offshore. Although commonly associated with ocean shorelines, land breezes can also be experienced near any large body of water such as a lake.
Sea Breezes, Horse Latitudes, Doldrums
Sea Breeze
On a warm summer day along the coast, this differential heating of land and sea leads to the development of local winds called sea breezes. As air above the land surface is heated by radiation from the Sun, it expands and begins to rise, being lighter than the surrounding air. To replace the rising air, cooler air is drawn in from above the surface of the sea. This is the sea breeze, and can offer a pleasant cooling influence on hot summer afternoons.
Horse Latitudes
The Horse Latitudes are located between latitude 30 and latitude 35 north and south of the equator. The region lies in an area where there is a ridge of high pressure that circles the Earth. The ridge of high pressure is also called a subtropical high.
Doldrums
The doldrums is an area of calm weather. The trade winds coming from the south and the north meet near the equator. These converging trade winds produce general upward winds as they are heated, so there are no steady surface winds.
Local Winds
Local winds are on a much smaller than global wind, on a scale. Your particular home city might have winds that tend to come from the east during one season, and the west during another. Or it might be totally different. The pattern of typical winds you get in a local area is what we call a local wind. Usually they're on the scale of tens of miles to hundreds of miles. These winds can be cold or hot, dry or wet. They can be mild and safe, or violent and dangerous.
Global Winds
If you combine the Coriolis Effect with the uneven heating of Earth, a global wind pattern begins to emerge and take shape. These Global Winds are the dominant prevailing wind patterns that blow in a fairly constant, steady direction across our earth. Global winds are comprised of three previaling winds: Tradewinds, Westerlies, and Polar Easterlies.