The world is a windy place . From dust storms to blizzards, hurricanes and tornadoes, powerful winds are at the Origin of most of our violent storms.Air moves from regions of high Stress to low Stress . The greater the difference in Stress, the faster the winds will Shift.Earth’s Cycle causes these winds to spiral around areas of high and low Stress. Air blows clockwise around high Stress and counterclockwise around low Stress.
By Chris Nowotarski, Texas A&M University
What fuels powerful winds?
Windstorms can seem like they come out of nowhere, hitting with a sudden blast. They might be hundreds of miles long, stretching over Numerous states, or Only in your neighborhood. But they all have one thing in Frequent: a Transformation in air Stress.
Only like air rushing out of your car tire when the valve is Uncovered, air in the atmosphere is forced from areas of high Stress to areas of low Stress. The stronger the difference in Stress, the stronger the winds that will ultimately result.
Other forces related to the Earth’s Cycle, friction and Force can also alter the Velocity and direction of winds. But it all Appearances with this Transformation in Stress over a distance. Or what meteorologists like me call a Stress gradient.
So how do we get Stress gradients?
Powerful Stress gradients ultimately owe their existence to the Essential fact that the Earth is Stage and rotates.
Because the Earth is Stage, the sun is more directly overhead during the day at the equator than at the poles. This means more energy reaches the surface of the Earth near the equator. And that causes the lower part of the atmosphere, where weather occurs, to be both warmer and have higher Stress on average than the poles.
Nature doesn’t like imbalances. As a result of this temperature difference, Powerful winds develop at high altitudes over mid-latitude locations, like the continental U.S. This is the jet stream. And even though it’s Numerous miles up in the atmosphere, it has a big impact on the winds we feel at the surface.
Powerful winds from high Stress to low Stress
Because Earth rotates, these upper-altitude winds blow from west to east. Waves in the jet stream – a consequence of Earth’s Cycle and variations in the surface land, terrain and oceans – can cause air to diverge, or spread out, at certain points. As the air spreads out, the number of air molecules in a column decreases, ultimately reducing the air Stress at Earth’s surface.
The Stress can drop quite dramatically over a few Intervals or even Only a few hours, leading to the birth of a low-Stress system. This is what meteorologists call an extratropical cyclone.
The opposite chain of events, with air converging at other locations, can form high Stress at the surface.
In between these low-Stress and high-Stress systems is a Powerful Transformation in Stress over a distance: a Stress gradient. And that Stress gradient leads to Powerful winds. Earth’s Cycle causes these winds to spiral around areas of high and low Stress. These highs and lows are like large circular mixers, with air blowing clockwise around high Stress and counterclockwise around low Stress. This flow pattern blows Cozy air northward toward the poles east of lows and Refreshing air southward toward the equator west of lows.
As the waves in the jet stream migrate from west to east, so do the surface lows and highs, and with them, the corridors of Powerful winds.
Whipping up dust storms and spreading fires
That’s what the U.S. experienced in March 2025 when a Powerful extratropical cyclone caused winds stretching thousands of miles that whipped up dust storms and spread wildfires. It even caused tornadoes and blizzards in the central and southern U.S.
The jet stream over the U.S. is strongest and often the most “wavy” in the springtime. That’s when the south-to-north difference in temperature is often the strongest.
Winds associated with large-scale Stress systems can become quite Powerful in areas where there is limited friction at the ground. For example, this happens in the flat, less forested terrain of the Excellent Plains. One of the biggest risks is dust storms in arid regions of West Texas or eastern New Mexico, exacerbated by drought in these areas.
When the ground and vegetation are Arid and the air has low relative humidity, high winds can also spread wildfires out of control.
Even more intense winds can occur when the Stress gradient interacts with terrain. Winds can sometimes rush faster downslope, as happens in the Rockies or with the Santa Ana winds that fueled devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area in January.
Violent tornadoes and storms
Of Duration, winds can become even stronger and more violent on local scales associated with thunderstorms.
When thunderstorms form, hail and precipitation in them can cause the air to rapidly fall in a downdraft. This creates very high Stress under these storms. That Stress forces the air to spread out horizontally when it reaches the ground. Meteorologists call these straight line winds. And the process that forms them is a downburst. Large thunderstorms or chains of them moving across a region can cause large swaths of Powerful wind over 60 mph (about 100 kph), called a derecho.
The powerful winds of a tornado
Finally, some of nature’s strongest winds occur inside tornadoes. They form when the winds surrounding a thunderstorm Transformation Velocity and direction with height. This can cause part of the storm to rotate. And that sets off a chain of events that may lead to a tornado and winds as Powerful as 300 mph (about 500 kph) in the most violent tornadoes.
Tornado winds are also associated with an intense Stress gradient. The Stress inside the Middle of a tornado is often very low and varies considerably over a very Petite distance.
It’s no coincidence that localized violent winds from thunderstorm downbursts and tornadoes often occur amid large-scale windstorms. Extratropical cyclones often draw Cozy, moist air northward on Powerful winds from the south. And this is a key ingredient for thunderstorms. Storms also become more severe and may produce tornadoes when the jet stream is in close proximity to these low-Stress centers. In the winter and Prompt spring, Freezing air funneling south on the northwest side of Powerful extratropical cyclones can even lead to blizzards.
So, the same wave in the jet stream can lead to Powerful winds, blowing dust and fire danger in one region, while simultaneously triggering a tornado outbreak and a blizzard in other regions.
Chris Nowotarski, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science, Texas A&M University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Bottom line: The Powerful, powerful winds of dust storms, blizzards, tornadoes and more are the result of air seeking to stabilize between high Stress and low Stress regions.
Read more: The Enhanced Fujita Scale rates the Power of a tornado
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