Do you know why the wind blows?

Wind is the most common natural phenomenon that we encounter daily. And since people are used to its existence, few people think about why it actually exists. Here's what to say to someone who asks you this question.

Wind is the natural movement of air masses in the planet's atmosphere. There are two reasons for this natural phenomenon. The main one is uneven heating Earth's surface by solar radiation.

In places where Sun illuminates the planet at a right angle - for example, in the equatorial regions - it heats up more the closer to the poles. There, the rays fall at a large angle and pass through a large thickness of the atmosphere.

Warm air is lighter than cold air: if you don’t believe it, look how balloons with a burner fly thanks to this property. As the hot air rises, it creates areas of low pressure. And vice versa: cold, descending, forms areas with high pressure.

Air tends to move from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. This is what causes the wind.

By the way, areas of the atmosphere with low pressure are called cyclones, and those with high pressure are called anticyclones.

The second factor in wind formation is earth rotation. This phenomenon called the Coriolis effect. When the wind moves from north to south or from south to north, the Earth rotates under it. The air flow deviates to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern. Because of this, it flows counterclockwise around high pressure areas, and clockwise around low pressure areas in the northern hemisphere and vice versa in the southern hemisphere.

This effect is important for the formation of global atmospheric circulations and determines the direction of winds around the world. It also leads to the formation of typhoons, hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Finally, wind direction and speed are affected by geographic features such as oceans, mountains, and valleys. Mountain ranges can block air currents, changing the direction of air currents and leading to the formation of precipitation. Oceans and other water surfaces can be the cause of strong winds: water heats up and cools more slowly than land, and this creates a pressure difference in the atmosphere.

In general, everything is quite simple.