In order to get to those beautiful May flowers, we need to suffer through April showers?and March winds. This week’s links introduce the basics of the world of winds and winds of the world.
We know that wind patterns form around the globe, and satellite photos of the earth show us that these patterns take the form of complicated swirls. In this video clip, a professor performs an experiment to visually demonstrate how the heat differences between the poles and the equator combine with the earth’s spin to create the wind patterns that affect us every day.
Weather reports usually give forecasted wind speed in kilometres per hour. But what exactly does that number mean for your weekend plans? The Beaufort Scale uses numbers to estimate wind speed ?just by looking about,? as this excellent comic strip explains. Click the link a graphic representation of each Beaufort level.