Weather

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Unit 2
More about the major wind systems,
the Southern Oscillation Index
and the North Atlantic Oscillation

The different warming of our planet depending on the latitude and the allocation of water and land is the driving engine of the wind systems of our planet Earth. Monsoons and trade winds are examples of two such systems.

Many of the traditional names of the wind zones have their roots from the time when sailing ships were used in the middle ages, when calms and storms could often decide about life and death. The El Niño phenomena, which is based on pressure variances, in this case over the mid Pacific, has a strong influence on temperature and precipitation on several continents. The weather in Europe and in the Mediterranean region, however, depends more on the North Atlantic Oscillation. You will learn more about these systems in the following sections of this unit.

About this page:

author: Elmar Uherek
language reviewing: Sally Taylor, University of Leeds
last update: 2005-07-15