Why Does the Wind Blow?

Words to Know

Wind

Air that is moving from one place to another

When you feel a breeze on your face, that's wind!

Uneven heating

When the sun warms some places faster than others

Sand gets hot faster than water — that's uneven heating!

Rise

When something light goes up

Warm air rises because it's lighter than cool air.

Sea breeze

Wind that blows from the ocean toward the land

A sea breeze happens because land heats up faster than water.

Check What You Learned

Fun Facts

• Wind is air in motion, caused by uneven heating of the Earth's surface by the sun.

  Source: NOAA National Weather Service

• The sun heats land faster than water. Warm air above land rises, and cooler air over water flows in to replace it, creating wind.

  Source: NASA

• Warm air is less dense and rises; cool air is more dense and sinks. The movement of cool air rushing in to replace rising warm air creates wind.

  Source: American Meteorological Society

• The fastest wind speed ever recorded on Earth was 253 mph (408 km/h), measured at Barrow Island, Australia, during Cyclone Olivia in 1996.

  Source: World Meteorological Organization

• Global wind patterns (trade winds, westerlies) are driven by large-scale uneven heating between the equator and poles, combined with Earth's rotation (Coriolis effect).

  Source: NOAA

• Sea breezes are a daily example: during the day, land heats up faster than the ocean, creating an onshore breeze; at night, the reverse occurs.

  Source: National Geographic