Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The westerlies (blue) and trade winds (yellow and brown) The general atmospheric circulation. Trade winds (red), westerlies (white) and the South Pacific anticyclone (blue) [1] The westerlies, anti-trades, [2] or prevailing westerlies, are prevailing winds from the west toward the east in the middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees latitude.
In the Pacific Ocean, the full wind circulation, which included both the trade wind easterlies and higher-latitude westerlies, was unknown to Europeans until Andres de Urdaneta's voyage in 1565. [4] The captain of a sailing ship seeks a course along which the winds can be expected to blow in the direction of travel. [5]
Like trade winds and unlike the westerlies, these prevailing winds blow from the east to the west, and are often weak and irregular. [15] Due to the low sun angle, cold air builds up and subsides at the pole creating surface high-pressure areas, forcing an outflow of air toward the equator ; [ 16 ] that outflow is deflected westward by the ...
The Westerlies or the Prevailing Westerlies are the prevailing winds in the middle latitudes between 35 and 65 degrees latitude. These prevailing winds blow from the west to the east, [38] [39] and steer extratropical cyclones in this general manner.
The weaker Westerlies of the Ferrel cell, however, can be disrupted. The local passage of a cold front may change that in a matter of minutes, and frequently does. As a result, at the surface, winds can vary abruptly in direction. But the winds above the surface, where they are less disrupted by terrain, are essentially westerly.
What direction do the Santa Ana winds blow? Santa Ana winds move clockwise, in the opposite direction to the usual flow that moves moist air from the Pacific Ocean onshore.
The trade winds blow westward in the tropics. The westerlies blow eastward at mid-latitudes. This applies a stress to the ocean surface with a curl in north and south hemispheres, causing Sverdrup transport equatorward (toward the tropics).
Consequently, a wind blowing from the north has a wind direction referred to as 0° (360°); a wind blowing from the east has a wind direction referred to as 90°, etc. Weather forecasts typically give the direction of the wind along with its speed, for example a "northerly wind at 15 km/h" is a wind blowing from the north at a speed of 15 km/h ...