The wind has been blowing almost constantly since last night. I find it to be an interesting phenomenon. Tonight I've been tickled by my window being sucked shut repeatedly, and then, after some time, released. That happens regularly in this room. The wind has woken me up at night, as has the rain, recently. I've been observing which directions the clouds are blowing and trying to fain knowledge as to what that means for the type of weather blowing in. Yet, despite trying to play it smart, I'll admit that I don't entirely understand wind. It took me about 20 years to grasp that wind direction was in fact describing where it came from, not blew towards. I get on-shore, off-shore, the idea of solar radiation, temperature differences and more vaguely the idea of differences in pressure. And though I know about these differences in pressure, I still don't get what makes the direction of the wind, what makes it blow regularly, what happens when different spiraling bits of wind collide, and so on. Possible this is because I don't totally understand the pressure thing. I'm start to grasp that warm warmth means lower pressure because warm air is lighter than cold air, exerts less downward pressure, it rises, in warm things (gas and fluids) the little atoms speed up and spread out. I know also there's a point at which it's not so warm anymore because due to the decreased air pressure, the little atoms can no longer touch to bounce off one another and create energy/heat. Or maybe I'm making that up.
In my attempt to advance my understanding, I have discovered a few good websites (at bottom). The first two help explain what wind is. The third is a totally awesome one that shows the current wind directions in the UK.
And while my understanding is lacking, the wind continues to taught me, blowing, occasionally gusting, by my window, into my room, whistling white noise in the background.
http://eo.ucar.edu/basics/wx_2_c.html -- A lot of fun, education oriented pages
http://www.bwea.com/edu/wind.html -- A bit more technical. I think I need a model that demonstrates what this looks like.
http://www.xcweather.co.uk/ - Awesome!
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