Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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. They originate from the high-pressure areas in the horse latitudes (about 30 degrees) and trend towards the poles and steer extratropical cyclones in this general manner. [ 3 ]
The westerlies play an important role in carrying the warm, equatorial waters and winds to the western coasts of continents, [13] [14] especially in the southern hemisphere because of its vast oceanic expanse. The westerlies explain why coastal Western North America tends to be wet, especially from Northern Washington to Alaska, during the winter.
Besides the westerlies, and trade winds, the large surfaces of land also effect the wind, causing cyclones, hurricanes and other deviations to the normal direction of trade wind File usage The following 10 pages use this file:
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 westerlies and trade winds Winds are part of Earth's atmospheric circulation Easterly winds, on average, dominate the flow pattern across the poles, westerly winds blow across the mid-latitudes of the Earth, polewards of the subtropical ridge , while easterlies again dominate the tropics .
The main jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause and are westerly winds, flowing west to east around the globe. The northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere each have a polar jet around their respective polar vortex at around 30,000 ft (5.7 mi; 9.1 km) above sea level and typically travelling at around 110 mph (180 km ...
The consistently warm, dry, and sunny conditions of the horse latitudes are the main cause for the existence of the world's major hot deserts, such as the Sahara Desert in Africa, the Arabian and Syrian deserts in the Middle East, the Mojave and Sonoran deserts in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, all in the Northern ...
Buran (a wind which blows across eastern Asia. It is also known as Purga when over the tundra); Karakaze (strong cold mountain wind from Gunma Prefecture in Japan); East Asian Monsoon, known in China and Taiwan as meiyu (梅雨), in Korea as jangma (), and in Japan as tsuyu (梅雨) when advancing northwards in the spring and shurin (秋霖) when retreating southwards in autumn.