ISTM that the wind where I live - NJ, about 10 miles from the ocean - is mostly from west to east. Not always, but a clear majority of the time. I’ve noticed this many times, and it’s particularly relevant around this time of year for leaf raking - you want to start with the west side and move east so that the wind will always blow leaves towards the area that you haven’t raked yet.
What would be causing this? I would guess the ocean (or possibly the Earth’s rotation?) FWIW, I have a couple of small lakes immediately north and south of me, though I doubt if that’s a factor.
Most of the continental U.S. (including New Jersey) is in the “mid-latitudes” (between 35 degrees and 65 degrees north), and the prevailing winds in those latitudes are from the west. This is due to a number of factors, but as I understand it, it’s primarily from the Coriolis effect.
There are variations within a day though. Normally, along the coast, you will have predominantly onshore wind in the morning and predominantly offshore wind in the evening, as any surfer will attest. This is because water has a high heat coefficient, meaning it can store lots of heat and release it when the surrounding temperature drops. So land heats up faster than water but also cools down faster, and these temperature differentials lead to pressure differentials in the air above.
So, to sum it up: You have very large scale (actually, global scale) factors such as the coriolis effect overlaid with influences from more local circumstances, such as the shape of the coastline. Weather is a very complex system.
Prevailing winds shape cities. In London the prevailing wind is west to east. And the west of the city is much more upmarket than the east. The east is where a lot of slums were built, where Jack the Ripper operated and where still today there are poorer areas. This is because the city expanded rapidly around the time of the industrial revolution and all the smoke from the factories would drift eastwards. But even after that London air in the west has always been cleaner than in the east.
That is probably part of the issue, but wouldn’t it also be influenced by the fact that the (busy, smelly, noisy, working-class) docks were in the east?
Here is a really cool visualization I enjoy. As I configured the URL, it’s showing surface winds & temps centered on the continental USA. But you can drag the globe around and there are lots of settings if you click the “earth” or the hamburger at lower left.
Right now (noonish on Dec 1 on the US east coast) much of the US is not displaying the common West-to-East wind pattern, but most of the eastern seaboard is. Which would include the OP’s location.
If the eastern sky is mostly clear and red at dawn, it means that there is a high pressure system (good weather) in that direction, which will be moving east. A low pressure system, meaning bad weather, will be moving in from the west. Conversely, if the sky is red in the west at sunset, it means a high pressure system is moving in.
It means that it’s not completely overcast in that direction. If there are too many clouds, the sun won’t shine through except hazily, and there won’t be a red sky. The most spectacular sunrises/sunsets are when there are scattered clouds. An oncoming storm will mean a gray sunrise, not a red one.