Clik here to view.
ASK THE METEOROLOGIST
“Where does wind come from?”
Chase, Griffin Creek Elementary
Winds are caused by differences in atmospheric pressure. Areas of high and low pressure form when we have a lot of either warm or cold air in place. Cold air is related to more stable, sinking air, and therefore is also related to high pressure. Warm air involves expanding, unstable, rising air and is thus related to low pressure.
When discussing wind, it is important to note that air moves from high pressure to low pressure. Think of it like this. where we have high pressure, that essentially means that air is piling up. Where we have low pressure, it means that there is less air, so there is room to “fill it in.”
So, air then moves form the area of high pressure (where there is “excess” air) to low pressure to help balance out the “void” of air in the center of low pressure. That, in turn, causes the wind to blow towards lower pressure since that is the direction the air is moving. When the centers of high and low pressure are in close proximity to each other, winds will be stronger since the difference of pressure is greater over a smaller distance. We call this the pressure gradient.
Chief Meteorologist Kate McKenna
