Winds along the west coast of South America blow from south to north.
Click on image for full size
Image courtesy of Ron Woods.

Winds in the Southeast Pacific

The winds in the Southeast Pacific mainly blow from south to north. They affect the weather and climate in the region. They also affect the climate in other places around the world.

Air near the equator is very hot. Hot air rises. It forms clouds which make rain. That is why there are rainforests near the equator. Later, the air falls back down towards the ground. It does that around 30° South latitude. Next the air flows back north along the ground towards the equator. Those winds are called the trade winds. The spin of the Earth makes the trade winds turn a bit towards the west. The high "wall" of the Andes Mountains helps to steer the winds along the coast. These winds blow pretty hard most of the time.

The air in the trade winds is dry. The dry winds help create the Atacama Desert in Chile. It is one of the driest places on Earth. The strong winds also help stir up the ocean. They also help bring cold water from deep in the ocean to the surface. The atmosphere and the ocean in this area are connected in many ways. The strong winds also carry aerosol particles from industries in South America out to sea. The aerosol particles change how clouds form in the area.

The winds in the Southeast Pacific also affect the weather and climate in other parts of the world. These winds are a big part of the cause of El Niño and La Niña.

Last modified October 27, 2008 by Randy Russell.

You might also be interested in:

Cool It! Game

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

Wind

Wind is moving air. Warm air rises, and cool air comes in to take its place. This movement creates the winds around the globe. Winds move at different speeds and have different names based on their speed....more

Southeast Pacific Climate

There are a lot of clouds over the Southeast Pacific Ocean off the coasts of Peru and Chile in South America. In fact, this area has the largest amount of stratus and stratocumulus clouds in the world!...more

Teleconnections: Changes in Weather Linked Together

Changes in the atmosphere in one place can affect the weather very far away. Scientists call this phenomenon teleconnections. Sometimes the way air moves around the atmosphere changes over time. The changes...more

How Clouds Form

A cloud is composed of tiny water droplets or ice crystals. A series of things have to happen in order for these water droplets or ice crystals to form into clouds in the atmosphere, and different types...more

Rain

Raindrops form when tiny water droplets collide together in clouds to form bigger ones. When they get too heavy, rain falls out of the clouds. Rain is more than 5mm in diameter. The types of clouds that...more

Tropical Rainforests

Have you ever been to a rainforest? Rainforests have very different trees than the ones you might climb in your yard. Thousands of species of plants and animals live in the rain forests of the world. But...more

Atacama Desert

The Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on Earth. The Atacama is in the country of Chile in South America. In an average year, this desert gets less than 1 millimeter (0.04 inch) of rain! It is...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA