If a weather bulletin shows the center of a low-pressure system to be 100 miles due east of you, what winds can you expect in the Southern Hemisphere?
• Buys Ballot’s Law in the Southern Hemisphere (how the wind relates to the position of a low-pressure center) • Direction of circulation around a low in the Southern Hemisphere (clockwise vs counterclockwise) • How winds cross isobars toward lower pressure near the Earth’s surface
• In the Southern Hemisphere, if you face the wind, where is the low-pressure center relative to you? Use that to relate your position (west of the low) to the expected wind direction. • If the low is 100 miles due east of you, are you on the west, east, north, or south side of the circulation? What is the approximate flow direction on that side for a clockwise circulation? • Once you know the direction the air is moving toward, remember that wind direction is named for the direction it comes from. What compass direction would that be?
• Confirm whether winds around a low in the Southern Hemisphere circulate clockwise or counterclockwise. • Visualize or sketch a simple diagram: put the low to the east, draw the circulation, then look at the arrow at your position west of the center. • Before choosing, double-check that you are naming the wind from the direction it originates ("from") and not the direction it is blowing toward.
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