How many prevailing winds

You can also start noting the weather report for your area, although this may not be as accurate since they are reported from another location. Some weather stations provide easily accessible long-term data where prevailing wind directions may be found by month or year.

Sometimes wind data is displayed as a wind rose plot. A wind rose plot indicates the frequency of wind blowing from each direction. The longest ray points in the direction the wind has been recorded most often over a period of time. Start by choosing your state, and then nearest city to view a wind rose NOTE: open the.

See how winds can change in a location from month to month, or more commonly, season to season. Here is a comparison of a wind rose depicting weather patterns in Athens, GA for the month of January and August. In some cases, this takes places in the desert, as sand dune s migrate and change shape over time. The Altiplano region of South America has dramatically shaped ventifact s—rocks carved by the wind-driven sand and ice.

Loess , a sediment that can develop into one of the richest soils for farming, is easily swept up by wind. Even when farmers take precautions to protect it, the wind can erode up to 2. The most famous example of this devastating windstorm is probably the Dust Bowl of s North America. Dust Bowl storms could reduce visibility to a few feet, and earned names like "Black Blizzards. However devastating to the economy, wind is an important way plants disperse seed s.

This form of seed dispersal is called anemochory. Plants that rely on anemochory produce hundreds and even thousands of seeds. Some of the most familiar seeds dispersed by the wind are those of the fuzzy dandelion. Wind Energy Wind has been used as a source of energy for more than a thousand years—it has pushed ships around the globe and been captured in windmill s to pump water; it has turned giant stones to grind grains, make paper, saw logs, and crush ore.

Today, most wind energy is used to generate electricity for homes, businesses, hospitals, schools, and industry. Wind is a renewable resource that does not directly cause pollution. Wind energy is harnessed through powerful turbine s. Wind turbines have a tall tubular tower with two or three propeller-like blades rotating at the top. When the wind turns the blades, the blades turn a generator and create electricity.

Often, wind turbines are collected in windy areas in arrays known as wind farm s. Many wind farms have been established on mountains, in valleys, and offshore, as the air from the ocean interacts with land-air. Some people think wind turbines are ugly and complain about the noise they make.

The slowly rotating blades can also kill birds and bats—but not nearly as many as cars, power lines, and high-rise buildings. The economic drawback to wind farms, however, is the wind itself. If it's not blowing, there's no electricity generated.

Still, use of wind energy has more than quadrupled between and Germany has the most installed wind energy capacity, followed by Spain, the United States, India, and Denmark. Development is also growing quickly in France and China. Kamikaze Like the Protestant Wind, kamikaze were specific historical winds. Kamikazetranslated as divine windswere major typhoons that destroyed the invading Mongolian Navy off the coast of Japan in the late s.

In the 20th century, kamikaze became the informal name for suicide attacks during World War II. The official name for kamikaze strategy is tokktai.

Protestant Wind The Protestant Wind refers to the lucky weather encountered by the British Navy of the 16thth centuries.

Britain had just become a Protestant nation. Anemoi Deities representing the winds play an important role in mythologies around the world. In Europe, ancient Greek myths refer to the Anemoi , or wind gods, as Boreas north wind , Eurus east wind , Notus south wind , and Zephyrus west wind.

In Aztec mythology, the four wind gods were Mictlanpachecatl north wind , Tlalocayotl east wind , Vitztlampaehecatl south wind , and Cihuatecayotl west wind. Many people were confined to their homes for a week. The devastation and inconvenience led urban leaders to invest in the creation of the first subway system in the U.

Age of Sail The ability of ships to sail with powerful trade winds helped determine the political and engineering history of the Age of Exploration, sometimes nicknamed the Age of Sail. Spanish, Portuguese, and British ships were quick, relatively easy to maneuver, and their large, complex series of sails exploited trade winds and southern westerlies to travel across the ocean.

Chicago is a lakeside city that experiences cool breezes coming off Lake Michigan. It is not, however, any windier than most other cities. The nickname most likely came from Chicagos relationship with Cincinnati, Ohio, in the 19th century. Their industrial economies, as well as their baseball teams, were fiercely competitive. Cincinnati leaders dismissed Chicago baseball players and businesses as being insubstantial and meaninglesswindy and full of hot air. Extraterrestrial Winds The same forces that cause winds on Earthuneven heating by the sun and the planets rotationcause other planets to develop strong winds.

Jupiters famous Great Red Spot is actually a centuries-old hurricane-like storm, swirling at around kph mph. The strongest winds in the solar system, however, belong to its outermost planet, Neptune. Neptunian winds whip at speeds up to 2, kph 1, mph. Extrasolar planets those outside our solar system have even faster winds. The extrasolar planets of 51 Pegasi have winds that blow 14, kph 9, mph! Gone with the Loo There are dozens of names for winds that blow through specific regions.

Some, like the noreasters that blow from the northeast down the East Coast, are not creatively named. Here are some others: barber : cold, moisture-laden wind that freezes on contact with hair and beards. Coromuel : strong, warm wind that blows from afternoon to early morning through La Paz, Baja California, Mexico. The wind was named after British sailor Samuel Cromwell, whose name the locals could not pronounce.

Hawk : strong, cool breeze blowing westward through Chicago from Lake Michigan. The Levant, the Mideast region in the eastern Mediterranean, does not experience the levant. Loo : strong, hot summer wind that blows across northern India from the arid deserts to the west, and is only stopped by the arrival of the monsoon. The Loo is such a powerful ecological and cultural force that ice creams and sherbets are consumed to combat Loo-induced fatigue.

November witch : hurricane-force winds that develop as cold Arctic air masses meet warm air from the Gulf over the Great Lakes. Pembrokeshire Dangler : area where prevailing winds converge and cause a line of cold rain and snow to dangle north-south across the Irish Sea. Santa Anas : hot, dry winds that blow from the deserts and mountains of inland California to the coast.

Santa Anas are often responsible for spreading Southern Californias destructive wildfires, earning them the nickname murder winds. Siroccos carry tons of dust and sand throughout northern Africa, and contribute to wet weather as they reach Europe. Also called the West Wind Drift. The Coriolis effect makes storms swirl clockwise in the Southern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. Usually, hurricanes refer to cyclones that form over the Atlantic Ocean.

High-pressure systems are usually associated with clear weather. Hurricanes are the same thing as typhoons, but usually located in the Atlantic Ocean region.

Also known as the Monsoon Zone. Low-pressure systems are often associated with storms. Also called a temperate zone. Monsoon usually refers to the winds of the Indian Ocean and South Asia, which often bring heavy rains.

Also called a storm tide. Tropical storms are less powerful than cyclones and hurricanes. Typhoons are the same thing as hurricanes, but usually located in the Pacific or Indian Ocean region. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.

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Wind Systems. MS-ESS Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates. The content and activity in this topic will work towards building an understanding of the physical processes that form winds and how these processes contribute to weather and climate.

Prevailing Winds The north-to-south movement of air masses, combined with the deflection of the Coriolis effect, creates general surface wind patterns across the surface of the earth. Circulation Cells and Prevailing Wind Belts Air masses do not move directly from the equator to the poles or the poles to the equator. Trade Winds The bulk of air mass movement and transfer of solar heat energy occurs in the Hadley circulation cells located directly north and south of the equator.

Polar Easterlies At each pole, a cold polar air mass creates a region of high air pressure. Prevailing Westerlies The Hadley cell distributes heat away from the equator, and the polar cell absorbs this heat. Convergence Zones The areas where the circulation cells come together have no steady prevailing winds. Weird Science. Climate Connection.

Further Investigations. Table of Contents: Wind Systems. The British Isles lie at the convergence zone between the warm southwest antitrades and the cold polar easterlies.

Convergence of warm and cold air masses at this latitude produces cyclonic low pressure and the development of rain-bearing depressions, whish sweep across the Atlantic to influence the British climate.

The prevailing winds are the mild southwesterlies, but for much of the time, the British Isles are influenced by polar air masses with a northwesterly or northerly airflow, that bring with them colder showery weather.