What makes windy weather

It all has to do with pressure. Air molecules are constantly bouncing around and bumping up against things all around us. All of the colliding creates a force, that force over a given area creates pressure. The air has mass and gravity drags that mass down to the ground.

When the sun heats the earth, the heat is not evenly distributed. Heat gets transferred from the air which can create areas of low pressure and high pressure. These pressure differences between the two, causes wind to blow.

Air will flow from high pressure to low pressure. The atmosphere is not attached to the earth and the earth is always turning on its axis which causes wind to rotate, this is known as the Coriolis effect. Wind will blow counterclockwise around an area of low pressure and clockwise around high pressure for the northern hemisphere.

When pressure changes fast over a short distance this causes, gusty, fast moving wind. This most often occurs near cold fronts, areas of low pressure and the jet stream.

Wind can blow even faster when it is forced into a narrow area, for example between buildings and mountain passes. Skip to content. A Pacific storm could bring areas of heavy snow and gusty winds from Wyoming into Minnesota Tuesday night into Wednesday. Ahead of this, temperatures in the central and northern Plains Tuesday will threaten two dozen or more high temperatures records. Windy conditions were experienced across the area today. Below are some of the max wind gust reports over past 24 hours.

Gusty winds will continue into late this evening with a few gusts to around 40 mph still possible. So in a nutshell, wind is just air moving from an area of high pressure to a place where there is lower pressure. Weather Blog: Why does it get windy? Posted: Mar 12, PM. Posted By: Beverly Perry. Regional National Local. Rivers and Lakes.

River Observations Map Water Supply. Climate and Past Weather. Smoke rises vertically with little if any drift. Little if any movement with flags. Wind barely moves tree leaves. Leaves rustle and small twigs move. Ordinary wind vanes move. Wind blows up dry leaves from the ground. Flags are extended out. Wind raises dust and loose paper from the ground and drives them along. Crested wavelets form on inland lakes and large rivers. Whistling sounds heard in overhead or nearby power and telephone lines.

Umbrellas used with difficulty. Inconvenience felt when walking against the wind.