The sun warms the air around the earth. Because the atmosphere doesn’t get the same temperature everywhere, low and high pressure areas are created. Air flows from high pressure to low pressure areas. But the fact that the earth turns means that the air can’t flow there directly. So winds build up and circle around the pressure area. Where we are, in the northern hemisphere, the wind blows clockwise around high pressure areas and anti-clockwise around low pressure areas. Wind is simply air flowing from one place to another. The faster the pressure increases over a certain distance, the stronger the wind.
How strong is the wind?
Wind force is measured on the Beaufort Scale. It goes from 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane). It was invented by the British admiral Sir Francis Beaufort in 1806. It wasn’t until 1838 that the British Navy required all ships to adopt the scale. Some 90 years later, the invention of wind meters enabled land dwellers to also measure wind speed.
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