In message
,
Weatherlawyer writes
Why does the weather flow west to east?

It only flows west to east in some latitudes (and in some latitudes only
at some times of the year).

I've been looking at Karman and Bernoulli and all that stuff to get
some idea why the weather dissipates the way it does overland.

To me it just appears vortex shedding and fairly simple convergence/
divergence/convergence/divergence at the west/eastern shores of the
continents.

It goes round and round, eventually ending up at either pole as per
von Karman principles. But (assuming upper levels rotate in the same
direction) there is no real explanation to the direction.

I ruled out Coriolis Effect for two reasons:
1. It is not a force and the west winds are absolute forces, nothing
else but.
2. If it were a phenomenon, Newton would have found it first.

Coriolis force is the usual explanation. Air starts off at latitude X
moving with the same velocity at the earth's surface at that latitude.
To the degree it retains that velocity by the time it's got to latitude
Y it's no longer has the same velocity as the earth's surface at that
latitude. That difference becomes a westerly deviation for polewards
flowing air, and an easterly deviation for equatorwards flower air.

You'd think the heat source would push air eastwards. The fact that it
does happen in some latitudes "occasionally" is immaterial as this
"occasionally" business seems to rely on total calm -which could
actually be seen as proof that the winds aught to be travelling east
to west in ideal conditions.

Which obviously means something is pushing it the other way.
What?


--
Stewart Robert Hinsley