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what are the types of winds

Air in the motion is known as wind. Horizontal movement of air due to unequal heating of the air due to unequal heating of the air gives rise to the winds.

Winds always blow from areas of high pressure to the areas of low pressure. Wind velocity and direction depend on the pressure gradient.

There are three chief types of winds. These are given below:

     (i) Permanent or Prevailing or Planetary winds

    (ii) Periodic winds

    (iii) Local winds.

(i) Permanent or Prevailing or Planetary winds:

     These winds blow throughout the year from one latitude to another in the same direction due to the latitudinal difference in the air pressure. These are three major types of permanent winds. These are:

       (a) Trade winds,

       (b) Westerly winds

       (c) Polar winds.

  (a) Trade winds:

      These winds blow from sub-tropical High Pressure Belts towards the Equatorial Low Pressure Belts. These winds are extremely steady.

In the Northern Hemisphere, due to rotation of the Earth, the wind moving towards the Equator is deflected South-Westward and hence, it is named as ‘North-East Trade’. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is deflected towards the left and is known as ‘South-East Trade’.

   (b) Westerly winds:

These winds blow from the Sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt towards Sub-Polar Low Pressure Belts between 35° and 60° North and South latitudes.

In the Northern Hemisphere, these winds blow from the South-West to the North-East, and in the Southern Hemisphere from North-West to the South-East.

   (c) Polar winds:

The winds blowing from North and South polar regions towards Circum-polar Low Pressure Belts are known as polar winds.

In the Northern Hemisphere, they blow from North-East and in the Southern Hemisphere, they blow from South-East. These winds get deflected towards west in both the Hemispheres and are thus known as Polar Easterlies.

(ii) Periodic winds:

Periodic winds are those winds which blow during a particular period of the day or season of the year.

Two examples of periodic winds are:

   (a) Land and Sea Breezes, and

   (b) Monsoon winds.

   (a) Land and Sea Breezes:

These are caused due to the differential heating and cooling of land and water. Sea breezes blow from sea towards the land during the day time while land breezes blow from land towards the sea during the night.

  (b) Monsoon winds:

These winds are seasonal winds that change their direction with a change of season. These winds are caused due to the differential heating and cooling of continents and oceans. They are further divided into following two wind systems:

    (1) Summer monsoon, and

    (2) Winter monsoon.

(iii) Local winds:

The winds that affect only a limited area and blow only for a short period of time are called local winds. Some of the important local winds are Loo, Foehn, Chinook and Mistral.