Wind: Quick Facts

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The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

Oct. 25, 2026

News •

Several more days of wind, coastal flooding for East Coast • Oct. 21, 2026, 6:30 AM ET (The Weather Channel)

Facts

Also Known As	wind system

Photos and Videos

wind bending palm trees

A compass-style diagram titled How to read wind direction shows arrows and labels for northerly, southerly, easterly, westerly, and intermediate wind directions, helping illustrate how winds are named based on their origin.

Illustration showing the process of Santa Ana winds in California, with a map indicating high-pressure air from the Great Basin moving southwest toward the coast, funneled through mountains and valleys, warming and drying the air, which increases wildfire risk. Numbered labels explain each step and a wildfire is depicted at the end of the wind path.

Dispersal of several types of seeds.

World map showing mean sea-level pressure in millibars for January, with contour lines labeled with pressure values and color shading for land and sea. Red arrows indicate the general direction and speed of global winds, while red and orange dashed lines trace primary and secondary storm tracks, including regions of tropical cyclones. Major pressure systems like the Siberian High, Aleutian Low, Icelandic Low, and Azores-Bermuda High are labeled.

Map of the world showing average sea-level pressure in millibars for July, with labeled high and low pressure systems such as the Asian monsoon low, Hawaiian high, Azores-Bermuda high, and Icelandic low. Red dashed and dotted lines indicate primary and secondary storm tracks, while arrows show the direction and speed of prevailing global winds. Typhoon and hurricane regions are marked in the western Pacific and Atlantic, respectively.

A line graph shows how precipitation and evaporation vary by latitude, with peaks in precipitation near the equator and poles, and peaks in evaporation around 30 degrees north and south. Wind belts such as polar easterlies, westerlies, and trade winds are labeled across the top, illustrating their relationship to these patterns.

What causes powerful wind squalls?

See how differing amounts of solar radiation at the poles and Equator affect Earth's climate and atmosphere

Learn how mountains, bodies of water, and human habitation affect atmospheric activity

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Topics

Windstorm planetary wind system calm crosswind tailwind prevailing wind tramontana wind direction wind velocity geostrophic wind Atmospheric river Atmospheric turbulence Subtropical high

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