Surface winds

• Winds always blow from areas of high preassure to low preassure. Winds do this to balance out the difference in air preassure.
• Winds in the Arctic circle (North) are the polar easterlies.
• Winds coming from the tropic of cancer to the arctic circle are westerlies.
• Winds coming from the TO cancer to the equator are called the North East trade winds.
• Winds coming from the TO capricorn to the equator are called the South East trade winds.
• Winds coming from the TO capricorn to the antarctic circle are called westerlies.
• Winds in the Antarctic circle are called polar easterlies.
• The coriolus effect: Winds blowing from high - low preassure are deflected by the spinning of the Earth.
• In the Northern hemisphere the coriolus effect deflects winds to the right.
• In the southern hemisphere the coriolus effect deflects winds to the left.
• Sometimes winds are deflected to such an extent by the coriolus effect that they flow almost horizontally creating a geostrophic wind.
• Rossby waves: wave like patterns found in the westerly wind belts which form as a result of temperature and preassure difference.
• Rossby waves: Looping northwards = warm tropical air transferred to higher latitudes.
• Rossby waves: Looping southwards = Cold polar air transferred to lower latitudes.
• Uneven land surface: Relief may disrupt the general pattern of surface winds, for example, mountain ranges obstruct and deflect wind belts (e.g. Rocky mountains deflect westerly winds)