Everything about winds
Local, global, and winds in general.
General information
Wind is a sideways movement of air and it always moves from an area of high pressure to an area that has lower pressure. The differences in air pressure are caused by the uneven heating of earth's surface. Wind speed is measured with a anemometer and direction can be found with a wind vane. Winds are named by the direction they come from. A wind that comes from the west would be called a west wind and a wind that comes from the east is called an east wind. when a wind is blowing and it increasingly cools the air, it is called the wind-chill factor
Local Winds
A local wind is a wind that blows over a small area. An example would be a sea breeze, which is wind blowing in from a body of water such as an ocean or lake. A sea breeze usually only happens during the day. A land breeze blows from a land mass towards a body of water, again, like an ocean of lake. Now, wind moves from areas of higher pressure to areas of low pressure. warm air means low pressure because it is less dense and cold air means high pressure because it is more dense. Last, land heats up quickly and loses heat quickly while water heats up slowly and is able to hold on to heat. During the day, the water is colder because it is taking so long to heat up so the wind will go from the area of high pressure (water) to the area of low pressure (land). This is called a sea breeze. At night, since there is no longer a sun to heat up the land, it becomes cold really quickly. The water has had all day to warm up and it holds on to heat so it is warmer than the land. The wind will then move from the area of high pressure (land) to the area of low pressure (water). This is called a land breeze.
Sea Breeze
A nice diagram of a sea breeze. The rotation will start at one and go through six. Then it will repeat itself
Land breeze
A nice diagram of a land breeze. The rotation wills start at the number one and go through number five. Then it will repeat itself.
Global winds
Global winds are winds that stretch over a long distance. They keep the same speed and direction unlike local winds. The Coriolis effect is caused by the rotation of the earth. Global winds would blow straight but because of the rotation, the winds in the northern hemisphere turn right and the winds in the southern hemisphere turn left. There are many different types of global winds. The calm ones are the doldrums and the horse latitudes. At both of these, there is almost not wind. The horse latitudes are found at around 30 degrees north and south and the doldrums are around the equator.The polar easterlies are another type of global wind. These winds start at the north and south poles and go east. The trade winds start at around 30 degrees north latitude and blow toward the equator. The last global wind is the jet stream. You may have heard of these before. These winds blow very fast from west to east. They can be hundreds of kilometers wide and can blow at speeds of up to 400 kilometers per hour.