Here’s a dome scratcher… If planet earth revolves east to west, why does our weather patterns go west to east???
IANAMeteorologist or Physicist, but it seems to me that if the surface of the earth is moving from east to west, the atmosphere would rotate more slowly, with the net effect being that the wind and weather progresses from west to east.
The earth actually revolves west to east.
Remember though that the atmosphere is moving at the same speed (roughly) as the planet revolves. Same thing applies that when you jump the earth does not move beneath you.
The weather direction is caused by the jet stream. The jet stream is the result of warm, high pressure air near the equator moving north/south to colder, low pressure air. The earth’s spin has a coriolis effect which deflects the jet stream to the east so it goes west to east.
Our weather patterns are way more complicated than that.
Around the equator, the air mostly moves east to west. Farther north, around the latitudes of most of the U.S., the air mostly moves west to east. Even further north, it’s east to west again.
But at the same time, the air is circulating vertically as well. It heats up near the surface and rises then cools and drops.
And then you add in various effects of land and water.
Take a look at this picture:
http://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/visual/img_lrg/atmospheric_circulation.jpg
The earth revolves from west to east. The sun sits still; in the morning it’s to the east and we move toward it (i.e. toward the east), and in the evening it’s to the west and we move away from it (i.e. toward the east).
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And in the “horse latitudes” (the area between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Equator) the prevailing winds are NEly, which is the main reason that hurricanes that arise off Africa travel mostly westerly. Initially they tend to move SW but their paths are influenced by other weather conditions (the Bermuda High, local cyclones, etc,). When they reach land in the US, they lose their tropical characteristics and are carried along frontal cyclones.
D’oh! I should’ve stopped to finish my coffee before posting my answer. :smack: