1.  Prevailing winds are major wind patterns that cover large geographical areas  In Ontario the prevailing wind direction is from the West  Prevailing winds help to distribute large amounts of solar energy and moisture from the equator to colder parts of the planet (advection)  Because the sun hits most directly around the equator, air rises in this area and forms the equatorial convection current  Rising air sucks in air from both north and south which creates wind at the surface  If the earth were flat and did not move the winds would flow from S to N and N to S in one continuous circulation cell

3.  The atmosphere of the earth rotates along with the earth at about 300m/s  Different points on earth move at different speeds  When air begins to move N or S due to convection it continues to move east at the same speed it was moving before it changed latitude

4.  This means that fast air moving north will appear to be to curve to the right (east) creating a prevailing west wind  The influence of earth’s rotation on air or on any object moving on the earth’s surface is called the Coriolis effect  Depending on the direction of convection/advection different prevailing winds are set in motion

5.  The Jet stream(s) are ribbons of extremely fast moving air near the top of the troposphere.  They are caused by convergence between cold and warm air creating a large pressure differential  Therefore Jet streams only occur between circulation cells