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 It’s
very hot outside these days, isn’t it? On
a hot summer day, there’s nothing like a cool, refreshing wind! So, why
don’t we learn some cool wind facts!
- Wind is moving air and is caused by differences in air pressure within our atmosphere. Air under high
pressure moves toward areas of low pressure. The
greater the difference in pressure, the faster the air flows.
- Wet air is lighter than dry air. Warm air, which weighs less than cool air,
rises. Then, cool air moves
in and replaces the rising warm
air. This movement of air is what makes
the wind blow.
- The windiest place in the world is Port
Martin, Antarctica. Port Martin has an average wind speed over a year of
64 km/h. It experiences gale force 8 winds for over
a hundred days a year!
 -
The most violent tornado in recorded history struck in the U.S.
on March 18, 1925. It killed 689 people, injured 1,980 others, destroyed 4 towns, and left
11,000 homeless across Missouri,
Indiana and Illinois.
- The fastest winds on Earth are inside a tornado funnel. Winds here have been
recorded at 480 km/h.
- The strongest wind gust recorded on the surface of the Earth is 371
km/h at Mount Washington in New Hampshire on April 12, 1934. It was
the fastest wind gust ever recorded with an anemometer! The anemometer
is an instrument to measure wind speed.
- In 1999, sophisticated Doppler radar has been used
to measure winds, recording a wind speed of 318 mph in an Oklahoma
tornado. That’s faster than the top speeds of Japanese bullet trains and over three
times quicker than the fastest
baseball pitch! |
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