Wind direction. Definition and observations

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

Determining wind direction and strength is a fairly standard task in meteorology. The perceived air temperature, as well as the weather itself, depend on these parameters - after all, the winds carry significant air masses. You can often hear from weather forecasters that large cyclones or anticyclones are coming somewhere from the Arctic or, for example, from the Atlantic. Wind is the movement of air masses in the lower layers of the atmosphere from an area of high to an area of low pressure, so that the force of the wind also depends on strong differences in the pressure index in close areas. That is why hurricanes and typhoons rarely occur in the depths of the mainland. But near the coast of the sea or ocean - much more often. Calm, that is, calm, is observed where the pressure in adjacent areas is the same. But this situation is not very common.

Determining the prevailing wind direction, and especially its speed and strength of gusts, is very important for air traffic controllers. If the wind is strong, the pilot will need to make allowances for this, and if the wind is too strong, the flight may even have to be canceled or postponed. The same andwith ships. Even on a boat, the strength and direction of the wind matters. That is why meteorologists fix the speed and direction of winds with the help of special instruments, and then even draw up a special graph, a wind rose, illustrating which direction of wind is predominant in one place or another. Usually, the wind rose is compiled based on the results of a year or an even longer period. For example, the prevailing wind direction in Moscow in recent years is southwest. That is, most of the time in the year it is the southwest or west wind that blows.

By the way, when talking about the direction of the wind, the designation of the cardinal points has a special meaning. If they say about the wind that it is south, then it blows from the south. So, some confusion arises when people see the direction of the arrow from left to right and believe that the wind is east. There is no error! In determining the winds, the arrows always indicate the direction from which the wind is blowing, and not where. It is difficult to say why it happened this way, it just happened.

So how do you determine the direction of the wind? Easily! Mankind has invented several devices that allow you to do this quickly: an anemometer used on ships, a weather vane that helps determine the direction and strength of the wind even at home, as well as special wind indicators that can often be seen at airports: they are made in the form of a long orange-white likeness net.

The strength of the wind, usually defined together with its direction, is often indicated in points ormeters per second. Sometimes, when the exact numbers are not important, the terms "moderate", "weak" and so on are used.

Among other things, there are seasonal winds, as well as those whose direction depends on the time of day - this is usually observed on the coast of the seas or other large bodies of water. We are talking about breezes and monsoons. They have a serious impact on the climate and weather in cities and towns located not only near large bodies of water, but also inland.

Thus, the direction of the wind and its strength are one of the main weather and climate indicators, along with temperature, pressure and precipitation.