THE PREVAILING WINDS OF THE UNITED STATES.

The article focuses on the prevailing winds of the U.S. The continental area of the U.S. lies almost entirely within what is generally known as a belt of prevailing westerly wind. These are members of the general atmospheric circulation. They would, however, blow from a general westerly direction much more distinctly if there were no North American continent with its seasonal changes of temperature and of pressure. The local influences of the changing seasonal pressures over the continent and over the adjacent oceans are, to a large extent, paramount to the general control over air movement exercised by the differences of pressure between the equator and the higher latitudes.