Wind

📖 In short

Wind is air moving over the Earth's surface. It can be a gentle breeze you hardly feel that rustles the leaves, or a very strong storm that rips up trees, knocks down houses and whips the sea's waves up high.

🤩 Did you know?

Wind direction is named after where it comes from: a north wind comes from the north.
Wind directions are sometimes given in degrees on a 360-degree circle.
The wind force scale is made of numbers starting at zero.
Kites fly by the force of the wind.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Why does wind blow?

The Sun doesn't heat the Earth evenly. Warm air is light and rises, and cool, heavy air comes to take its place. This movement is wind.

🔍 Sea breezes

By day the land warms up faster than the sea, so a cool breeze blows from the sea onto the shore. At night it's the other way round, and the breeze blows from the land to the sea.

💡 Measuring wind

Scientists measure wind strength on a numbered scale, starting at zero for still air and going up to fierce hurricanes. A weather vane shows which way the wind is blowing.

🎯 Wind power

For a long time people have used wind to push sailing ships and turn windmills. Today they build giant wind turbines that turn the wind's power into clean electricity.