SCIENCE10 - Wind

In the past, I’ve posted blogs on the science of clouds and the weather, but I realized a while ago that I had more to learn about the wind.  So, this blog will cover the science of wind.

 

After a short introduction, I’ll talk about the different global prevailing wind zones; local considerations; wind patterns and storms; wind impacts on the natural landscape; how winds are measured; how we obtain energy from wind; and finish up with a discussion of historical and regional winds.

My principal sources include “Wind,” nationalgeographic.org; “Wind:  Meteorology,” britannica.com; Global Wind Patterns,” electricala2Z.com; “Wind,” Wikipedia; and numerous other online sources.

Introduction

Wind is caused when air moves from an area of high pressure to one of low pressure.  The greater the pressure difference between areas, the stronger the wind.  Wind is characterized by its altitude, speed, and direction, with wind direction usually expressed in terms of the direction from which it originates.  For example, a westerly wind blows from the west.

Global prevailing winds are winds that blow from a single direction over specific, large areas of the Earth.

Local area factors that can affect winds include coastal breezes; uneven landscapes, rugged topography, and tall objects; time of day; and of course, weather, including storms.

Global Prevailing Wind Zones

Earth’s prevailing winds are caused by the uneven heating of the Earth by the Sun, and are strongly affected by the rotation of the Earth, that deflects all winds in the northern hemisphere to the right, and all winds in the southern hemisphere to the left.  Also, seasonal changes and landmasses have a major effect on these patterns.

The illustration below portrays the global prevailing wind zones, or belts, three in each hemisphere that circle the Earth.  Each of these wind belts is a three-dimensional "cell" that circulates air through the atmosphere from the surface to high altitudes and back again.

Earth’s prevailing wind zones and corresponding air circulation cells.

 

At the Equator, the Sun warms the water and land more than it does the rest of the globe.  Warm equatorial air rises higher into the atmosphere and starts to migrate toward the poles.  This is a low-pressure system.  At the same time, cooler, denser air moves over the Earth’s surface toward the Equator to replace the heated air. 

Note:  The low-pressure zone around the equator has very calm winds and was given the name doldrums.  Early sailors obviously wanted to avoid the doldrums.

In the northern hemisphere, the cooler air moving toward the equator moves from north to south at low altitudes; in the southern hemisphere, it moves from south to north.  This process forms an atmospheric circulation cell called the Hadley Cell (for the English meteorologist who first proposed its existence).  A high-pressure region is formed in the vicinity of 30 degrees latitude, where the high-altitude air from the equator sinks. 

Trade Winds.  Some of the sinking air travels back toward the equator, forming winds known as the trade winds (or tropical easterlies), powerful prevailing warm, steady winds that blow from the east across the tropics.

Trade winds are generally very predictable.  Ships relied on trade winds to establish quick, reliable routes across the vast Atlantic and, later, Pacific Oceans.  Even today, shipping depends on trade winds and the ocean currents they drive.

In 1947, Norwegian explorer Thor Hyerdahl and a small crew used trade winds to travel from the coast of Peru to the coral reefs of French Polynesia, more than 4,300 miles, in a sail-powered raft.  The expedition, named after the raft (Kon-Tiki) aimed to prove that ancient mariners could have used predictable trade winds to explore wide stretches of the Pacific.

Trade winds that form over land (called continental trade winds) are warmer and drier than those that form over the ocean (maritime trade winds). The relationship between continental and maritime trade winds can be violent.

Most tropical storms, including hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons, develop from trade winds.  Differences in air pressure over the ocean cause these storms to develop.  As the dense, moist winds of a storm encounter the drier winds of the coast, the storm can increase in intensity.

Strong trade winds are associated with a lack of precipitation, while weak trade winds carry rainfall far inland.  The most famous rain pattern in the world, the Southeast Asian monsoon, is a seasonal, moisture-laden trade wind.

Westerlies.  The rest of the cool, sinking air at about 30 degrees latitude continues to move toward the North and South. These winds are called the westerlies and are located in the mid-latitudes, between 40 to 60 degrees, in both hemispheres.  Note that the U.S. lies primarily in the Westerly Wind Belt, with prevailing winds from the west.

Westerlies are strongest in the winter, when pressure over the pole is low, and weakest in summer, when the polar high creates stronger polar easterlies.

The strongest westerlies blow through the “Roaring Forties,” a wind zone between 40- and 50-degrees latitude in the southern hemisphere.  Throughout the Roaring Forties, there are few landmasses to slow winds.  The tip of South America and Australia, as well as the islands of New Zealand, are the only large landmasses to penetrate the Roaring Forties.  The westerlies of the Roaring Forties were very important to sailors during the Age of Exploration, when explorers and traders from Europe and western Asia used the strong winds to reach the spice markets of Southeast Asia and Australia.

Subtropical High Region.  The narrow zone from about 30 to 35 degrees north and south, between the westerlies and the trade winds, is a warm, dry climate.  Many deserts, from the rainless Atacama of South America, to the arid Kalahari of Africa, are located in this zone.  (For 27 years, I’ve lived in Tucson, Arizona, in the Sonoran Desert, at latitude 32.2 degrees - wonderful climate.)

Polar Easterlies.  In both hemispheres, the westerlies start rising and cooling between 50 degrees and 60 degrees latitude as they approach the poles.  They meet extremely cold air flowing toward the equator from the poles, and form the polar cells with corresponding polar easterly winds.  Polar easterlies are cold, dry winds that flow from high-pressure regions at the poles toward low-pressure areas in the mid-latitude regions. These winds tend to be weaker irregular winds.

Local Considerations

In coastal regions, the sea is warmed by the Sun more slowly than the land.  As the temperature of the land rises, the land heats the air above it by conduction.  The warm air is less dense than the surrounding environment and so it rises.  The cooler air above the sea, now with higher sea level pressure, flows inland into the lower pressure, creating a cooler breeze near the coast.  

At night, the land cools off more quickly than the ocean.  This temperature change causes the daytime sea breeze to dissipate.  When the temperature onshore cools below the temperature offshore, the pressure over the water will be lower than that of the land, establishing a land breeze.

A:  Sea breeze (occurs at daytime), B:  Land breeze (occurs at nighttime).

 

Local hills and valleys can substantially distort airflow by increasing friction between the atmosphere and landmass, acting as a physical block to the flow - this can increase the low-level wind by 45%.  Jagged terrain combines to produce unpredictable flow patterns and turbulence.  Strong updrafts, downdrafts, and eddies can develop as the air flows over hills and down valleys.  Wind direction also changes because of the contour of the land.

In a mountainous region, if there is a pass in the mountain range, winds can rush through the pass with considerable speed, a condition dangerous to ascending and descending airplanes.  Winds that flow over mountains, down into lower elevations are known as downslope winds.  These winds are warm and dry.  In southern California (where I lived for 25 years), Santa Ana downslope winds are funneled through mountain passes, which intensify their effect.  Wind speeds can exceed 99 mph, and coastal temperatures can reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with very low humidity.

Generally, winds near the ground are typically stronger and gustier in the afternoon.  This is because, as the sun heats the atmosphere over the day, and the temperature rises, thermal turbulence and instability increase with increasing surface heating.

Wind speed tends to decrease after sunset because at night the surface of the Earth cools much more rapidly than does the air above it.  The air in close contact with the ground (lowest 300 feet of the atmosphere) then becomes colder than the air above it, making it much harder for fast moving air above the ground to mix down to the surface, where it could appear as a gust of wind.

If there is a low-pressure area or storm in the region, the winds can blow day and night.

The boundary between local high-pressure and low-pressure areas is called a front; the complex relationships between fronts cause different types of wind and weather patterns.

For a detailed explanation of local weather science, see my June 14, 2020 blog, “SCIENCE2 - Eye on the Weather in Tucson” at https://bobringreflections.blogspot.com/2020_06_14_archive.html.

Wind Patterns and Storms

Wind traveling at different speeds, different altitudes, and over water or land, can cause different types of patterns and storms.  Use the map below as a reference in the discussion of weather patterns around the globe.

 

Reference world map for the discussion of wind patterns and storms.

Jet Streams.  The advent of high-flying aircraft led to the discovery of a high, fast-moving rivers of air moving from west to east known as the jet streams, which is created by temperature gradients in the atmosphere.  Each hemisphere has jet streams that marks the boundary between cold polar air and warmer mid-latitude air.  These strong winds, at altitudes of 5 to 9 miles above Earth’s surface, generally blow from 80 to 140 mph, but can reach 275 mph.

Jet streams have significant impact on weather and the location of high- and low-pressure regions in the atmosphere.  They constantly change pattern, both daily and seasonally, so they are monitored constantly by weather forecasters.  In the winter, jet streams tend to move closer to the equator; in the summer, it they move away from the equator. 

Hurricanes.  A hurricane is a giant, spiraling tropical storm that can pack wind speeds of over 160 mph and unleash more than 2.4 trillion gallons of rain.  The spiral (swirling counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere) develops as a high-pressure area that twists around a low-pressure area. 

A typical hurricane is 400 miles in diameter and has an average forward speed of 15 miles per hour.  The average life span of a hurricane is nine days. 

Hurricanes spin around a low-pressure (warm) center known as the “eye.”  Sinking air inside the eye makes it very calm.  The eye is surrounded by a violent circular “eye wall;” where the storm’s strongest winds and rain are, typically 20 to 30 miles from the center.

Most hurricanes occur in the Atlantic Ocean; hurricane season peaks from mid-August to late October and averages five to six hurricanes per year.

Wind conditions that can lead to hurricanes are called tropical disturbances.  They begin in warm ocean waters when the surface temperatures are at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  If the disturbance lasts for more than 24 hours, and gets to speeds of 38 mph it becomes known as a tropical depression.

When a tropical depression speeds up to 39-73 mph it is reclassified as a tropical storm, and is given a name.  Meteorologists name the storms in alphabetical order, and alternate with female and male names.  When a storm reaches 74 mph it becomes a hurricane, and is rated from 1 to 5 in severity on the Saffir Simpson scale.  A Category 5 hurricane is the strongest storm possible on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds at 157 mph or higher.

Hurricanes bring destruction to coastal ecosystems and communities.  When a hurricane reaches land, it often produces waves that can reach 20 feet high and be pushed by high winds 100 miles inland.  These storm surges are extremely dangerous and cause 90% of all hurricane deaths.  High winds can also create tornadoes (see below).  Heavy rains contribute to floods and landslides, which may occur many miles inland.  Damage to homes, businesses, schools, hospitals, roads, and transportation systems can devastate communities and entire regions.

The deadliest hurricane on record is the Great Hurricane of 1780.  Although sophisticated meteorological equipment was not available at that time, winds may have reached 200 mph as the hurricane hit Barbados and other islands in the Caribbean Sea.  More than 20,000 people died as a result of the hurricane as it made its way across Barbados, St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Turks, Caicos, and Bermuda.  Although it decreased in intensity, the hurricane was tracked through the U.S. state of Florida before dissipating in the Canadian province of Newfoundland.

Hurricane Ethel, the strongest hurricane in recorded history, roared across the Gulf of Mexico in September 1960.  Winds were sustained at 160 mph; however, Hurricane Ethel quickly dissipated.  Although its winds ultimately blew as far north as the U.S. states of Ohio and Kentucky, by the time it hit the coastline of the U.S. states of Louisiana and Mississippi, the storm surge was only about 5 feet.  Only one person died as a result of Hurricane Ethel, and damage to buildings and boats was limited to less than $2 million.

Hurricane Katrina, which blew through the Gulf of Mexico and into the southern U.S. in 2005, is the most expensive hurricane in recorded history.  Damage to buildings, vehicles, roads, and shipping facilities is estimated at about $133.8 billion (adjusted for inflation).  New Orleans, Louisiana, was almost completely devastated by Hurricane Katrina.  New Orleans, as well as Mobile, Alabama, and Gulfport, Mississippi, took years to recover from the damage done to their structures and infrastructure.

 

Hurricane Katrina, as seen from space, as it approached New Orleans,2005.

 

Cyclones.  Cyclones are tropical storms that blow through the Indian Ocean in the same way hurricanes blow across the Atlantic.  Cyclones blow in with air masses from the east, often the South China Sea, or the south.

The most powerful and devastating cyclone in recorded history was the 1970 Bhola Cyclone.  Like Hurricane Katrina, the Bhola Cyclone was a Category 3 storm.  Its winds were about 115 mph as it made landfall along the coast of the Bay of Bengal, in what is today Bangladesh.  More than 300,000 people died, and more than a million were made homeless.  Cyclone winds devastated fishing villages, and storm surges drowned crops.  Economic damage from the Bhola Cyclone was more than $479 million (adjusted for inflation).

Typhoons.  Typhoons are tropical storms that develop over the northwest Pacific Ocean.  Their formation is identical to hurricanes and cyclones.  Typhoons form as equatorial winds, and blow westward before turning north and merging with westerlies around the mid-latitudes.

Typhoons can impact a wide area of the eastern Pacific.  The islands of the Philippines, China, Vietnam, and Japan are the most affected.  However, typhoons have also been recorded as far as the U.S. states of Hawaii, and even Alaska.

Typhoons are often associated with extremely heavy rainfall.  The wettest typhoon ever recorded was Typhoon Morakot in 2009 that devastated the entire island of Taiwan, with winds of about 85 mph.  Storm surges and floods caused by those winds, however, caused the most damage.  More than 109 inches of rain drenched Taiwan, leading to 461 deaths and $6.2 billion in damage.

Tornados.  A tornado, also called a twister, is a violently rotating funnel of air that extends down from the base of a thunderstorm to the Earth’s surface.  Tornadoes can occur individually or in multiples, as two spinning vortexes of air rotating around each other, and can occur over water as waterspouts or over land as landspouts.  Although destructive tornadoes can occur at any time of day, most of them occur between 4 and 9 p.m. local time.

Depending on the temperature and moisture of the air, a tornado can last a few minutes or over an hour.  However, cool winds eventually wrap around the tornado and cut off the supply of warm air that feeds it.  The tornado thins out into the “rope-like” stage and dissipates a few minutes later.

Most tornadoes have wind speeds of less than 110 mph, and are about 250 feet across.  They can travel for several miles before dissipating.  However, the most powerful tornadoes can have wind speeds of more than 300 mph and be more than 2 miles across.  These tornadoes can travel across the ground for dozens of miles.

These violent storms occur around the world, but the United States is a major hotspot with about a thousand tornadoes every year.  "Tornado Alley," a region that includes eastern South Dakota, southern Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, northern Texas, and eastern Colorado, is home to the most powerful and destructive of these storms.

The strength of tornadoes is measured according to the Fujita scale.  The scale has 28 categories that designate increasing damage.  After the tornado has passed, meteorologists and engineers determine the tornado’s strength based on its wind speed, width, and damage to vegetation and human-built structures.

 tornado touching down in Oklahoma, 1999.

 

The most extreme tornado ever recorded occurred on March 18, 1925.  This “Tri-State Tornado” sped for 219 miles through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.  The tornado destroyed local communications, making warnings for the next town nearly impossible.  The Tri-State Tornado killed 695 people in 3.5 hours.

Funnel clouds are spotted frequently in Tucson but very few of them become tornadoes (touch the ground).  Based on records dating back to 1950, 21 tornadoes have touched down within a 30-mile radius of Tucson International Airport.  Two of these tornadoes caused deaths and injuries, three others caused one or two injuries, and 16 tornadoes caused no deaths or injuries.  Two tornadoes in one day occurred on June 23, 1974 and July 17, 1984.

Nor’easters and Blizzards.  A nor'easter is a strong winter storm combining heavy snowfall, strong winds, and very cold temperatures.  It blows from the northeast along the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada.

The U.S. Weather Service calls a nor’easter a blizzard when the storm has wind speeds of more than 35 mph and causes low visibility.  The storm must go on for a prolonged period of time to be classified as a blizzard, usually a few hours.  Blizzards can isolate and paralyze areas for days, especially if the area rarely has snowfall, and does not have the equipment to clear it from the streets.

The Great Blizzard of 1888 was perhaps the worst in U.S. recorded history.  Winds of up to 45 mph whipped the East Coast from Chesapeake Bay to as far north as Nova Scotia, Canada.  More than 58 inches of snow fell across the region, causing freezing temperatures and massive flooding as the snow melted.  The Great Blizzard resulted in 400 deaths and $1.2 billion in damage.

Monsoons.  A monsoon is a seasonal change in the prevailing wind system of an area.  They always blow from cold, high-pressure regions.  Monsoons are part of a yearlong cycle of uneven heating and cooling of tropical and mid-latitude coastal regions.  Monsoons are part of the climate of Australia, Southeast Asia, and in the southwestern region of North America.  

The air over land is heated and cooled more quickly than the air over the ocean. During summer, this means warm land-air rises, creating a space for the cool and moist air from the ocean.  As the land heats the moist air, it rises, cools, condenses, and falls back to Earth as rain.  During the winter, land cools more quickly than the ocean. The warm air over the ocean rises, allowing cool land-air to flow in.

Most winter monsoons are cool and dry, while summer monsoons are warm and moist.  Asia’s winter monsoons bring cool, dry air from the Himalaya Mountains.  Other monsoons develop over the Indian Ocean, absorbing tremendous amounts of moisture.  Summer monsoons bring warmth and precipitation to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, and are essential for the health and economies of the Indian subcontinent.  Aquifers are filled, allowing water for drinking, hygiene, industry, and irrigation.

The North American monsoon is a pattern of pronounced increase in thunderstorms and rainfall over large areas of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, typically occurring between June and mid-September.  During the monsoon, thunderstorms are fueled by daytime heating and build up during the late afternoon and early evening.  Typically, these storms dissipate by late night, and the next day starts out fair, with the cycle repeating daily.  The monsoon typically loses its energy by mid-September when much drier conditions are reestablished over the region.  Geographically, the North American monsoon precipitation region is centered over the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains in the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Durango, Sonora and Chihuahua.

 

The North American monsoon brings thunderstorms to the southwestern U.S. from June to mid-September.

Wind Impacts on the National Landscape

Wind has the power to move particles of earth - usually dust or sand - in great quantities, and over far distances.  Dust from the Sahara crosses the Atlantic to create hazy sunsets in the Caribbean and Florida, 5,000 miles away.

Winds transport volcanic ash and debris for thousands of miles.  Winds carried ash from the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, a volcano in Iceland, as far west as Greenland and as far east as Great Britain.  The massive 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, an island volcano in Indonesia, had even more dramatic atmospheric results.  Winds carried volcanic ash and debris high in the atmosphere across the globe.  Europe endured years of cold, damp summers and pink sunsets.

Wind’s ability to move earth can erode the landscape.  In some cases, this takes places in the desert, as sand dunes migrate and change shape over time.  The wind can also pick up massive amounts of sand and “sandblast” rock formations into stunning sculptures.  The Altiplano region of South America has dramatically shaped rocks carved by the wind-driven sand and ice.

A rock formation in the Altiplano, Bolivia, sculpted by wind erosion.

 

The wind’s power to erode the land can be detrimental to agriculture.  Rich soils for farming, are easily swept up by wind.  Even when farmers take precautions to protect it, the wind can erode up to 1.6 pounds per square foot every year.

The most famous example of this devastating wind effect is probably the Dust Bowl of 1930s North America.  Dust Bowl storms could reduce visibility to a few feet, and earned names like "Black Blizzards."  Millions of farmers, especially those in the U.S. states of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas, lost their land when they were unable to harvest any crops.

Dust storms are meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions.  They arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt into the air from a dry surface.  In Arizona, dust storms can be some of the most dramatic weather events in the state, causing havoc for traveling automobiles and trucks suddenly caught in a storm.  Giant dust storms, called “haboobs” (Arabic for “blown”), are huge walls of dust created from high winds rushing out of a collapsing thunderstorm.  The wall of dust typically reaches heights between 1,500 and 3,000 feet, can stretch as far as 100 miles wide, and contains winds up to 50 miles per hour.  If you get caught outside during a haboob, you can be hurt by flying rocks and debris.  As a dust storm builds, it can completely block out the sun, making it nearly impossible to see just a few feet ahead, causing multiple-vehicle accidents and pileups.

Wind is also an important way plants disperse seeds.  Seeds are carried by the wind to distant or nearby places, increasing the spread of the plant’s genetics.  Some of the most familiar seeds dispersed by the wind are those of the fuzzy dandelion.

Winds help drive ocean surface currents around the world.  The Antarctic Circumpolar Current transports cold, nutrient-rich water around Antarctica.  The Gulf Stream brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico up the East Coast of North America and across the Atlantic to Northern Europe.  Due to the Gulf Stream, Northern Europe enjoys a much warmer, milder climate than other areas at similar latitudes, such as the U.S. state of Alaska.

Measuring Winds

Weather vanes pivot to indicate the direction of the wind.  At airports, windsocks indicate wind direction, and can also be used to estimate wind speed by the angle of hang.  Wind speed is measured by anemometers, most commonly using rotating cups or propellers.  Another type of anemometer uses pitot tubes that take advantage of the pressure differential between an inner tube and an outer tube that is exposed to the wind to determine the dynamic pressure, which is then used to compute the wind speed.

Cup-type anemometer with vertical axis, a sensor on a remote meteorological station.

 

When a high measurement frequency is needed (such as in research applications), wind can be measured by the propagation speed of ultrasound signals or by the effect of ventilation on the resistance of a heated wire. 

Sustained wind speeds are reported globally at a 33 feet height and are averaged over a 10‑minute time frame.  A short burst of high-speed wind is termed a wind gust.  A squall is an increase of the wind speed above a certain threshold, which lasts for a minute or more.

To determine winds aloft, a battery-powered telemetry instrument is carried into the atmosphere (usually by a weather balloon) that measures various atmospheric parameters and transmits them by radio to a ground receiver, sometimes assisted by GPS and/or tracking by radar or other devices.

Wind shear, sometimes referred to as wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and direction over a relatively short distance in the Earth's atmosphere.  Engineers must consider an area’s average wind shear when constructing buildings.  Wind shear is higher near the coast; skyscrapers must account for this increased wind by having a stronger foundation or being engineered to safely “sway” with the wind.

The amount of force that wind is generating is measured according to the Beaufort scale.  The scale is named for Sir Francis Beaufort, who established a system for describing wind force in 1805 for the British Royal Navy.  The Beaufort scale has 12 levels of wind force, shown in the figure below.

Beaufort wind force scale.

Wind Energy

Wind has been used as a source of energy for more than a thousand years.  It has pushed ships around the globe, been captured in windmills to pump water, and turned giant stones to grind grains, make paper, saw logs, and crush ore.  Today, most wind energy is used to generate electricity for homes, businesses, hospitals, schools, and industry.  Wind is a renewable resource that does not directly cause pollution.  

Wind energy is harnessed through powerful turbines.  Wind turbines have a tall tubular tower with two or three propeller-like blades rotating at the top.  When the wind turns the blades, the blades turn a generator and create electricity.  Often, wind turbines are collected in windy areas in arrays known as wind farms.  Many wind farms have been established on mountains, in valleys, and offshore, as the air from the ocean interacts with land-air.

 

One of today’s wind farms with propellers turning to generate wind energy.

Some people think wind turbines are ugly and complain about the noise they make.  The slowly rotating blades can also kill birds and bats - but not nearly as many as cars, power lines, and high-rise buildings.

The economic drawback to wind farms, however, is the wind itself.  If it's not blowing, there's no electricity generated. 

Still, use of wind energy has grown rapidly.  On March 29, 2022, wind turbines produced more power than coal or nuclear plants in the U.S. for the first time on record, according to the Energy Information Administration.  Industry experts predict that if this pace of growth continues, by 2050, one-third of the world’s electricity needs could be met by wind.

Historic Winds

Here are a few historic winds that gained notoriety over the years:

Selected historic winds.

Historic Wind	Comments
Mythologies	In Europe, ancient Greek myths refer to the Anemoi, or wind gods, as Boreas (north wind), Eurus (east wind), Notus (south wind), and Zephyrus (west wind).  In Aztec mythology, the four wind gods were Mictlanpachecatl (north wind), Tlalocayotl (east wind), Vitztlampaehecatl (south wind), and Cihuatecayotl (west wind).  Other mythologies recognize one supreme god of the wind: Enlil of Sumeria, Amun in ancient Egypt, Fujin in Japan’s Shinto culture, Fei Lan of ancient China, and Vayu, the Hindu god of wind.
Kamikaze	Kamikaze (translated as divine winds) were major typhoons that destroyed the invading Mongolian Navy off the coast of Japan in the late 1200s.  In the 20th century, kamikaze became the informal name for Japanese suicide attacks during World War II.
Protestant	The Protestant Wind refers to the lucky weather encountered by the British Navy of the 16th-17th centuries.  Britain had just become a Protestant nation.  The first Protestant Wind was a storm that destroyed the (Catholic) Spanish Armada off the coast of England in 1588.  The second was westward winds across the English Channel, allowing Protestant William of Orange to invade England and depose James II, the last Catholic monarch.
Subway Storm	The Great Blizzard of 1888 shut down roads and rails along the East Coast of the United States.  Many people were confined to their homes for a week.  The devastation and inconvenience led urban leaders to invest in the creation of the first subway system in the U.S., which opened in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1897.
Age of Sail	The ability of ships to sail with powerful trade winds helped determine the political and engineering history of the Age of Exploration, sometimes nicknamed the Age of Sail.  Spanish, Portuguese, and British ships were quick, relatively easy to maneuver, and their large, complex series of sails exploited trade winds and southern westerlies to travel across the ocean.  Their empires in Africa, eastern Asia, and the “New World” of North and South America blossomed in the 16th-19th centuries.
Windy City	Chicago, Illinois, has been nicknamed the Windy City for more than a hundred years.  Chicago is a lakeside city that experiences cool breezes coming off Lake Michigan.  It is not, however, any windier than most other cities.

  

 

Finally, here is a selected list of regional winds named for their unique properties:

 

Selected regional winds.

Regional Wind	Comments
Barber	Cold, moisture-laden wind that freezes on contact with hair and beards on the South Island of New Zealand.
Brickfinder	Hot, dry wind that carries enormous amounts of red dust from the deserts of southern Australia.
Cape Doctor	Cold, dry wind from the southeast that sanitizes the city of Cape Town, South Africa.
Coromuel	Strong, warm wind that blows from afternoon to early morning through La Paz, Baja California, Mexico.  The wind was named after British sailor Samuel Cromwell, whose name the locals could not pronounce.
Hawk	Strong, cool breeze blowing westward through Chicago from Lake Michigan.
Levant	Strong winds that blow from the Atlantic Ocean through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar in the western Mediterranean Sea.
Loo	Strong, hot summer wind that blows across northern India from the arid deserts to the west, and is only stopped by the arrival of the monsoon.  The Loo is such a powerful ecological and cultural force that ice creams and sherbets are consumed to combat Loo-induced fatigue.
November Witch	Hurricane-force winds that develop as cold Arctic air masses meet warm air from the Gulf over the Great Lakes.
Pembrokeshire Dangle	Area where prevailing winds converge and cause a line of cold rain and snow to dangle north-south across the Irish Sea.
Santa Anna	Hot, dry winds that blow from the deserts and mountains of inland California to the coast.  Santa Anas are often responsible for spreading Southern California’s destructive wildfires, earning them the nickname murder winds.
Sirocco	Wind that reaches hurricane speeds as it crosses the Mediterranean Sea to southern Europe.  Siroccos carry tons of dust and sand throughout northern Africa, and contribute to wet weather as they reach Europe.
Squamish	Fast-moving, cold wind that rushes down the narrow fjords of British Columbia, Canada.

  

I’ll close with this philosophical quote about the wind: