What do you think a nice breeze and a tornado have in common? That’s correct they are types of wind! Let’s learn five wonderful wind facts for kids.
Wind is moving air that blows at different speeds and different directions. Wind is caused by differences in air pressure and air temperature. Winds occur due to the Sun’s uneven heating of the Earth. When the Sun heats the land it raises the temperature of the air above it. As this warm air rises, colder air rushes in to cause wind. Wind also occurs when air rushes from high pressure areas to low pressure areas.
Winds go at many different speeds. Wind is mainly made up of gases, nitrogen and oxygen. Even though we cannot see wind, we can feel it and therefore we can measure it. The speed of wind is measured in miles per hour or kilometres per hour. A knot is a unit often used to measure wind speed. Meteorologists use barometers to measure air pressure and anemometers to measure wind speed. You can make your own anemometer at home using paper cups and measure the speed of the wind by counting how many times the anemometer spins in a certain amount of time.
Wind can be used as a very valuable renewable resource. Wind power is being more and more used in order to tackle the problem of climate change. Wind turbines can be built on land or at sea and they can produce electricity with the power of the wind without polluting the air. Large groups of wind turbines are called wind farms. Wind power is also one the least expensive forms of renewable power available to us. Wind energy is also clean and renewable. Over 5% of global electricity is powered by wind!
A tornadoes core is where winds reach incredible high speeds. This is the opposite to hurricanes and cyclones whose centres, called the eye, are one of the safest spots. In the centre of a tornado,
wind speeds can reach more than 250 miles per hour. These winds can cause extreme damage, destroying anything in its way such as cars, homes, trains and trees. The highest wind speed ever recorded was the Bridge Creek tornado in 1999, which reached up to 302 mph in wind speeds. That is crazy fast!
The speed of wind determines what the wind will be called. The lightest and most subtle wind is known as a breeze. A breeze is nice on a very hot day as it cools you down without making you too cold. A gale is stronger than a breeze and measures at about 30- 60 mph. A storm is a very strong wind which usually comes with heavy rain and sometimes thunder and lightning. Some storms can cause damage to anything that comes in its path. Tornadoes, and hurricanes are powerful and dangerous types of storms.
We hope you enjoyed learning more things about wind as much as we loved teaching you about it. Now that you know how majestic the winds are, you can move on to learn more about our amazing Earth like: Seas and Lakes, Miraculous Atmosphere and Water.
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