Talk:Westerlies

General comment
Westelies blow across the United States.
 * Obvious.

yup C)

Winter and Summer
At the end of the introduction, it states that "[Westerlies] are strongest in the winter and when the pressure is lower over the poles, and weakest during the summer and when pressures are higher over the poles." This is confusing, so I think that the writer should clarify who's winter: ours or theirs. Spventi (talk) 02:57, 23 April 2009 (UTC), only half in jest


 * Whichever hemisphere, actually. Although the passage does make it seem like both sets of westerlies are magnifying/weakening at the same time, which they aren't.  Will have to think about how to reword the passage.  Thegreatdr (talk) 06:49, 23 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I can understand that you are trying to provide an abstract description of the principle at work, but it's too confusing as written. How about something like: Due to the tendency for high pressure areas to form over polar regions during winter, the Westerlies reach their peak during January/February in the northern hemisphere and July/August in the southern hemisphere. Would that be a factually accurate description? Spventi (talk) 00:11, 26 April 2009 (UTC)


 * You see, that's the problem. It's not driven by increased high pressure at the poles.  If it was, there would be mid-latitude easterlies, not westerlies.  It's driven by increased low pressure at the poles, which is strongest (in general) in the winter.  The polar jet, due to temperature differential between the poles and equator, reaches its maximum intensity during mid-winter.  When you get high pressure over the poles, you end up with weaker westerlies and more meridional flow (the jet stream becomes more buckled with strong troughs and ridges), which makes the mid-latitudes colder.  Strong westerlies actually keeps the mid-latitudes relatively mild.  Thegreatdr (talk) 01:41, 26 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Well now it says they're strong in the "western hemisphere" and weak in the "summer hemisphere", which is just baffling. If we replace "high pressure" with "low pressure", is Spventi's explanation accurate enough to work? --Naleh (talk) 03:31, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

Southern Hemisphere
The article says: ...equatorial waters and winds to the western coasts of continents, especially in the southern hemisphere because of its vast oceanic expanse. This last sentence is not true. It would be much better making reference to the northern hemisphere, were the westerlies (and the Gulf Stream) carry much more heat to the western coasts of Europe and North America, than in the southern hemisphere toward the western coasts of South América, Africa and Australia. --Fev (talk) 06:04, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Westerlies and oceanic currents
The article says: ''Due to persistent winds from west to east on the poleward sides of the subtropical ridges located in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, ocean currents are driven in a similar manner in both hemispheres. The currents in the Northern Hemisphere are weaker than those in the Southern Hemisphere due to the differences in strength between the Westerlies of each hemisphere.''

Both sentences are wrong:
 * Even the fact that westerlies and oceanic currents run along a similar pattern, they have different causes, being w. winds caused by spatial differences in solar heating of continents and ocean surfaces, while ocean currents depend much more on the general effects of the Earth's movements, especially the rotation movement.
 * Influence of oceanic currents on direction of winds is much more important than the influence of winds on currents.
 * The currents in the Northern Hemisphere are weaker than those in the Southern Hemisphere, not due to the differences in strength between the Westerlies of each hemisphere but because of differences into the amount of land and sea in the two hemispheres. --Fev (talk) 06:35, 8 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Provide a book reference for this, and we'll fix it, if you didn't wish to. Thegreatdr (talk) 15:06, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Capitalization of title
Should this subject of this article be spelled "Westerlies" and "Prevailing Westerlies"? It seems to me that neither word is a proper noun, and climatology terms do not have any sort of special capitalization tradition. For example, the articles on the polar easterlies and the trade winds, the counterparts of the westerlies elsewhere on Earth, do not capitalize the wind names. Transphasic (talk) 03:37, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

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External links modified (January 2018)
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