What makes wind

If the winds are in front of the plane, pushing it back, they are called headwind s. Strong headwinds can cause flight delays. Hurricane A hurricane is a giant, spiraling tropical storm that can pack wind speeds of over kph mph and unleash more than 9 trillion liters 2.

These same tropical storms are known as hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, cyclone s in the northern Indian Ocean, and typhoon s in the western Pacific Ocean. These tropical storms have a spiral shape. The spiral swirling counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere develops as a high-pressure area twists around a low-pressure area.

Wind conditions that can lead to hurricanes are called tropical disturbances. They begin in warm ocean waters when the surface temperatures are at least If the disturbance lasts for more than 24 hours and gets to speeds of 61 kph 38 mph , it becomes known as a tropical depression.

When a tropical depression speeds up to kph mph , it is known as a tropical storm, and is given a name. Meteorologist s name the storms in alphabetical order, and alternate with female and male names. When a storm reaches kph 74 mph , it becomes a hurricane and is rated from 1 to 5 in severity on the Saffir Simpson scale.

A Category 5 hurricane is the strongest storm possible on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Winds of a Category 5 blow at kph mph. Hurricane Ethel, the strongest hurricane in recorded history, roared across the Gulf of Mexico in September Winds were sustained at kph mph.

However, Hurricane Ethel quickly dissipate d. Although its winds ultimately blew as far north as the U. Hurricanes bring destruction to coastal ecosystems and communities.

When a hurricane reaches land, it often produces waves that can reach 6 meters 20 feet high and be pushed by high winds kilometers miles inland.

These storm surge s are extremely dangerous and cause 90 percent of all hurricane deaths. The deadliest hurricane on record is the Great Hurricane of Although sophisticated meteorological equipment was not available at that time, winds may have reached kph mph as the hurricane hit Barbados and other islands in the Caribbean Sea.

This may have been enough to strip the bark from trees. More than 20, people died as a result of the hurricane as it made its way across Barbados, St. Although it decreased in intensity, the hurricane was tracked through the U. Hurricanes can be destructive in other ways. High winds can create tornadoes. Heavy rains contribute to floods and landslides, which may occur many kilometers inland.

Damage to homes, businesses, schools, hospitals, roads, and transportation systems can devastate communities and entire regions. Hurricane Katrina, which blew through the Gulf of Mexico and into the southern U.

New Orleans, Louisiana, was almost completely devastated by Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans, as well as Mobile, Alabama, and Gulfport, Mississippi, took years to recover from the damage done to their structures and infrastructure.

The best defense against a hurricane is an accurate forecast that gives people time to get out of its way. The National Hurricane Center issues hurricane watches for storms that may endanger communities, and hurricane warnings for storms that will reach land within 24 hours. Cyclones Cyclones blow through the Indian Ocean in the same way hurricanes blow across the Atlantic.

Cyclones blow in with air masses from the east, often the South China Sea, or the south. The most powerful and devastating cyclone in recorded history was the Bhola Cyclone. Its winds were about kph mph as it made landfall along the coast of the Bay of Bengal, in what is today Bangladesh. More than , people died, and more than a million were made homeless. Cyclone winds devastated fishing villages, and storm surges drowned crops.

Typhoon Typhoons are tropical storms that develop over the northwest Pacific Ocean. Their formation is identical to hurricanes and cyclones.

Typhoons form as equatorial winds and blow westward before turning north and merging with westerlies around the mid-latitudes. Typhoons can impact a wide area of the eastern Pacific. The islands of the Philippines, China, Vietnam, and Japan are the most affected. However, typhoons have also been recorded as far as the U. Typhoons are often associated with extremely heavy rainfall. The wettest typhoon ever recorded was Typhoon Morakot in Morakot devastated the entire island of Taiwan, with winds of about kph 85 mph.

Storm surges and floods caused by those winds, however, caused the most damage. It blows from the northeast along the East Coast of the U. The U. Weather Service calls a storm a blizzard when the storm has wind speeds of more than 56 kph 35 mph and low visibility. Visibility is the distance that a person can see—blizzards, like fog, make visibility difficult and a task like driving dangerous.

The storm must go on for a prolonged period of time to be classified as a blizzard, usually a few hours. Blizzards can isolate and paralyze areas for days, especially if the area rarely has snowfall and does not have the equipment to clear it from the streets.

The Great Blizzard of was perhaps the worst in U. More than centimeters 58 inches of snow fell across the region, causing freezing temperatures and massive flooding as the snow melted. Monsoon A monsoon is a seasonal change in the prevailing wind system of an area. They always blow from cold, high-pressure regions. Monsoons are part of a yearlong cycle of uneven heating and cooling of tropical and mid-latitude coastal regions. Monsoons are part of the climate of Australia, Southeast Asia, and in the southwestern region of North America.

The air over land is heated and cooled more quickly than the air over the ocean. During summer, this means warm land-air rises, creating a space for the cool and moist air from the ocean.

As the land heats the moist air, it rises, cools, condenses, and falls back to Earth as rain. During the winter, land cools more quickly than the ocean. The warm air over the ocean rises, allowing cool land-air to flow in.

Most winter monsoons are cool and dry, while summer monsoons are warm and moist. The famous summer monsoon, on the other hand, develops over the Indian Ocean, absorbing tremendous amounts of moisture. The summer monsoon is essential for the health and economies of the Indian subcontinent. Aquifers are filled, allowing water for drinking, hygiene , industry , and irrigation. Tornado A tornado , also called a twister, is a violently rotating funnel of air.

Tornadoes can occur individually or in multiples, as two spinning vortex es of air rotating around each other. Tornadoes can occur as waterspout s or landspouts, spinning from hundreds of meters in the air to connect the land or water with clouds above.

Although destructive tornadoes can occur at any time of day, most of them occur between 4 and 9 p. Tornadoes often occur during intense thunderstorms called supercells. A supercell is a thunderstorm with a powerful, rotating updraft. A draft is simply a vertical movement of air.

This powerful updraft is called a mesocyclone. A mesocyclone contains rotating drafts of air 1 to 10 kilometers 1 to 6 miles in the atmosphere. When rainfall increases in the supercell, rain can drag the mesocyclones down with it to the ground.

This downdraft is a tornado. Depending on the temperature and moisture of the air, a tornado can last a few minutes or over an hour. However, cool winds called rear flank downdrafts eventually wrap around the tornado and cut off the supply of warm air that feeds it. Most tornadoes have wind speeds of less than kph mph , and are about 76 meters feet across.

They can travel for several kilometers before dissipating. However, the most powerful tornadoes can have wind speeds of more than kph mph and be more than 3 kilometers 2 miles across.

These tornadoes can travel across the ground for dozens of kilometers and through several states. These violent storms occur around the world, but the United States is a major hotspot with about a thousand tornadoes every year.

Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. By Tiffany Means. Tiffany Means.

Since , she has worked as a freelance science writer covering natural disasters, the climate crisis, and the environment. Learn about our editorial process. Share Twitter Pinterest Email. Planet Earth Weather Outdoors Conservation. Prevailing Winds True to their name, prevailing winds are global wind belts that blow from the same direction, over the same sections of earth, throughout the year. Coriolis Force The Coriolis force is the tendency of air and all other free-moving objects to veer slightly to the right of its path of motion in the Northern Hemisphere.

What Are Jet Streams? View Article Sources. What Is Wind Energy? Definition and How It Works. Are Hurricanes Linked to Global Warming? What Are Geomagnetic Storms? How Do They Impact Earth? Space Weather Analysis. What Is a King Tide? Definition, Risks, and Climate Change Impact. What Is a Haboob? The direction of the wind is expressed as the direction from which the wind is blowing.

For example, easterly winds blow from east to west, while westerly winds blow from west to east. Wind speeds are based on the descriptions of winds in a scale called the Beaufort Scale, which divides wind speeds into 12 different categories, from less than 1 mph to more than 73 mph. The Beaufort Scale. This is something that happens in nature all the time: things always try to even out. Even people do it! When people get onto a bus, do they all sit on the same side of the bus first?

Do strangers sit next to each other when there are plenty of open seats? No way. People want to spread out as much as possible. Want to know more about wind?