WHO'S WHO AMONG THE WINDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 104, 4 May 1929, Page 10

WHO'S WHO AMONG THE WINDS.

Winds, tornadoes and other violent misplacements in the air are often mistermed. A gale is a strong, straight wind. Whirlwind: An eddy of air which whisks up dust; or a stronger whirl of air such as that which strips grain from a cornfield and sends them hundreds of feet aloft. Tornado: A violent, powerful whirlwind, covering a small area,, that supks up heavy objects or twists them from their moorings. Its vertical forces are more important than its horizohtal ones. Hurricane: A violent circular system of winds in the tropics and semi-tropics of the Atlantic and Caribbean, covering a considerable area and moving long distances. These are the strongest- of the predominantly horizontal < winds. They are sucked toward a great central vortex." One hundred miles an hour is their usual maximum for the winds to? ward the centre of circulation. . - ■ ; , Typhoon: A hurricane in the tropical waters of the Pacific. Waterspout: A tornado or violea* whirlwind over water. ' » " • ' . Gyclone: A continually misused term. In popular parlance, any destructive, wind is a ."cyclone." Properly, a cyclone is a circular system of winds covering a great area (sometimes 1000 miles across) and including gentle breezes as well as stiff winds. Cyclones are beneficial rather than harmful. They give us most of our weather changes. The daily weather map has its cyclonic system of winds circulating around it. When Nature dips her spoon in the weather brew and stirs, the result is a cyclone.