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The strongest westerly winds in the middle latitudes can come in the roaring forties, between 40 and 50 degrees south latitude. The westerlies play an important role in carrying the warm, equatorial waters and winds to the western coasts of continents, especially in the southern hemisphere because of its vast oceanic expanse.
The term originally derives from the early fourteenth century sense of trade (in late Middle English) still often meaning "path" or "track". [2] The Portuguese recognized the importance of the trade winds (then the volta do mar, meaning in Portuguese "turn of the sea" but also "return from the sea") in navigation in both the north and south Atlantic Ocean as early as the 15th century. [3]
The Roaring Forties are strong westerly winds that occur in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the latitudes of 40° and 50° south. [2] The strong eastward air currents are caused by the combination of warm air being displaced upward from the Equator towards the South Pole , Earth's rotation , and the scarcity of landmasses to serve as ...
But the winds above the surface, where they are less disrupted by terrain, are essentially westerly. A low pressure zone at 60° latitude that moves toward the equator, or a high pressure zone at 30° latitude that moves poleward, will accelerate the Westerlies of the Ferrel cell. A strong high, moving polewards may bring westerly winds for days.
In the mid-latitudes, westerly winds are dominant, and their strength is largely determined by the polar cyclone. In areas where winds tend to be light, the sea breeze -land breeze cycle (powered by differential solar heating and night cooling of sea and land) is the most important cause of the prevailing wind.
In its positive phase, the westerly wind belt that drives the Antarctic Circumpolar Current intensifies and contracts towards Antarctica. [9] In winter, a positive phase increases rainfall (including East coast lows) in south-eastern Australia (above Victoria) due to higher onshore flows from the Pacific Ocean, decreases rain in the south-west, and decreases snow in the alpine areas.
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 ...
Caju (stormy gale-force north-westerly in the Atlantic coast of Brazil) [citation needed] Nordeste (moderate wind from northwest in brazilian Northeast region) Carpinteiro (strong southeasterly wind along the southern Atlantic coast of Brazil) [citation needed] Garua, la garúa, or garoa (dry winds hitting the lower western slopes of the Andes ...