Named for where it starts
Where Does the Wind Come From?
A north wind blows from the north, and it carries whatever the north was like.
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Step 1 of 5
Wind is air moving to even out pressure.
Where air presses harder it pushes toward where it presses less. That flow is all wind is — the atmosphere trying to flatten a difference.
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Step 2 of 5
A vane turns to face where it comes from.
The tail is large, so wind pushes it downwind. That swings the small pointed end round to aim directly into the oncoming air.
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Step 3 of 5
Naming by origin is the useful convention.
What you want to know is what sort of air is arriving. Naming a wind for where it started tells you that immediately.
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Step 4 of 5
The origin explains the humidity too.
Air that crossed an ocean arrives damp; air that crossed a continent arrives dry. Direction predicts moisture as reliably as it predicts temperature.
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Step 5 of 5
A change of direction is a change of weather.
When the wind swings round, a different air mass has arrived. That shift is often the first sign of a front, before any cloud appears.
Around a low-pressure system in the northern hemisphere the wind circles anticlockwise, so its direction tells you where the centre is.
The short version
Wind is air flowing from high to low pressure, and naming it for its origin tells you the temperature and moisture arriving.
Try it yourself
Tie a ribbon to a stick and hold it up. Face into the wind — the direction you are facing is the wind's name.
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