Why does weather move from the west to the east?

Question

The Earth rotates from the west to the east and circuits around the sun from the west to the east. Is the any relashionshp between weather moving and the rotation of the Earth?

Answer 1

Yes, it is connected with the rotation of the earth, but it is less direct than you might imagine. The direction that weather moves depends upon what latitude you're at. You probably live in the mid-latitudes (the majority of people on earth do) so you're used to weather moving from west to east, but if you lived in the tropics, you might think that weather always moves the other way! The tropical regions have storm systems called "easterly waves" that move from east to west. These easterly waves can sometimes evolve into hurricanes, which generally move east to west initially and then if they get far enough north they turn (called "re-curving") and move from west to east. If the earth rotated the opposite direction, this would all be reversed, but there would still be regions where weather moves from west to east and other regions where it moves from east to west.

Answer 2

Weather systems move from west to east because water currents and wind currents move from west to east. But why do they do this?

Wind is caused when air is heated up by the sun, and then, as a result of being warmer, this hot air rises. So cooler air then rushes in to take the place of the air that has moved upwards.

The air at the equator gets hottest, because it is nearer to the sun, so the rising air at the equator is replaced by air coming in from the north and the south. So we end up with a situation where the lower altitude winds are going towards the equator, and the higher altitude winds moving away from it.

Now we have to think about the rotation of the earth. The speed is faster at the equator than at the poles, so the high altitude winds, that have just left the equator, tend to drift east, keeping the same speed of rotation as at the equator.

So, for this reason, you have high altitude winds drifting east, and they carry the weather with them, causing weather systems to drift east.

Answer 3

Because we are in the westerly wind pattern. It causes weather to move from the west.

In areas where they are in the trade winds, weather moves from east to west. It is the same in the polar regions too.

Answer 4

climate usually strikes from West to East because of the fact interior the mid-latitudes above 30 tiers North the Winds blows from West to East and those winds are called the triumphing westerlies.

Answer 5

In where the United States are located on the Earth, planetary winds are coming from the southwest. Those winds helps move clouds and fronts in an eastern direction. Also, I think the jet stream helps steer tropical storms. ( the jet stream above the U.S. comes from the west)