how do seasonal winds affect precipitation?
545159
These wind can redirect heat and moisture in the air. Lands with dry seasons and wet seasons fell the extreme in changes were no moisture has the chance to condense over the land due to the lack of moisture and/or to much heat to allow the moisture to condense.
919589
Winds pick up water vapor as they blow across oceans, and drop the water as rain as they blow across islands and  continents, generally losing more water as the elevation rises.  \n\nAs the air and clouds blow over higher ground, the temperature drops and causes the water to precipitate, forming rain.  There is a "rain shadow," on the leeward side of the higher ground in the center of an island or continent, because the clouds drop the rain on the "windward" side of a mountain (side toward the wind), leaving the "leeward" side drier (side that's sheltered from the wind).\n\nThe winds blowing across the ocean pick up water and bring rain to India, bringing more rain as they first come to the land, raining as the elevation rises, and then raining less after they cross the higher ground in the central parts of India. \n\nHope this helps.
1152801
Leaves sense the change in moisture in the environment with the coming storm. The stomata (openings in the bottom of the leaves only to exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen, with some water vapor needed for photosynthesis within the leave) take advantage of the added water source available from the air by rolling over temporarily to take on some water. They go back to normal when the rain starts so that the openings are not exposed to the rain and drown the openings.... Also, some leaves have flat petioles, (leaf stems) that make them roll over in the wind. Have you ever seen a quaking ASPEN tree?  It shakes in the wind due to its flat stem structure of it's leaves....I can go on and on......hope this helps.....   :-)
408414
The easy answer is, of course, from the potato salad and burrito you had earlier. A more dignified answer is at Scientific American. \n\nSimply put, wind is the motion of air molecules. Two concepts are central to understanding what causes wind: air and air pressure. Air comprises molecules of nitrogen (about 78 percent by volume), oxygen (about 21 percent by volume), water vapor (between 1 and 4 percent by volume near the surface of the earth) and other trace elements. Every time we breathe, the air we inhale is composed of about the same relative ratios of these molecules, and a cubic inch of air at ground level contains about 1020 molecules. \n\nAll of these air molecules are moving about very quickly, colliding readily with each other and any objects at ground level. Air pressure is defined as the amount of force that these molecules impart on a given area. In general, the more air molecules present, the greater the air pressure. Wind, in turn, is driven by what is called the pressure gradient force. Changes in air pressure over a specified horizontal distance cause air molecules from the region of relatively high air pressure to rush toward the area of low pressure. Such horizontal pressure differences of all scales generate the wind we experience. \n\nThe areas of high and low pressure displayed on a weather map in large part drive the (usually) gentle ambient wind flow we experience on a given day. The pressure differences behind this wind are only about 1 percent of the total atmospheric pressure, and these changes occur over the range of multiple states. The winds in severe storms, in contrast, are a result of much larger and more concentrated areas of horizontal pressure change. Tornadoes are great examples. In June 2003 Tim Samaras of Applied Research Associates placed a scientific probe in the direct path of an F4 (devastating) tornado near Manchester, S. Dak. He found that the air pressure dropped by 10 percent of the total atmospheric value over the radius of the tornado. The magnitude of this air pressure change, and the very short distance over which it occurred, explains why the winds are so destructive in this phenomenon: air molecules are very quickly accelerated into the very low pressure at the center of the tornado where the water vapor contained in the air often condenses, creating the often visible "condensation funnel."
1073872
Scientists seem to think so, but I think a lot of those scientists just tend to fall back on the views of other scientists that have already performed studies through the use of questionable proxies, and they simply want some of this highly-biased media attention. Anyway, applying some basic laws of physics to your question, a warmer atmosphere will hold more moisture. So regions that normally receive regular rains will probably receive more rain as the average temperature increases. Very important to remember this. However, deserts are a whole different ball game. We have deserts because of the nature of global winds in our upper atmosphere, like the Westerlies over the USA. Along our equator, huge amounts of hot air rise into the upper areas of our atmosphere and then they drop back down to the Earth around 20 to 30 degrees latitude.These sinking winds are bone dry, therefore, most of our deserts are along these latitudes. If there is an increase in the amount of hot air rising at the equator due to an increase in our average temperature, it would suggest that there would be a increase of bone dry winds falling onto the desert regions. So...the deserts would probably be even drier than they are now. And they may also expand. However, as I mentioned earlier, with more rainfall in the rainy regions, let's consider the possibility of an expansion of our rainy areas, which is supported by some scientific studies. They just don't really have a clue when it comes to something as unpredictable and fluid as our atmosphere.
254000
Both. The rotation of the earth causes storms (and your the water in your toilet) to spin in one direction depending on what hemisphere of the earth you live on.  Wind can also make clouds if blown up a mountain face by forcing warmer air into colder mountain air and thus creating clouds. These clouds form on the windward side of the mountain, and are pushed over the top of the mountain (by the wind) and then disappear on the leeward side of the mountain when the cooler air reaches the lower elevation warmer air.
1152346
It has EVERYTHING to do with climate, season, winds, etc.\n\nThe Coriolis effect, which results from the Earth’s rotation, plays an important role in large-scale circulation of the atmosphere. As viewed by an observer on Earth, air appears to be deflected to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. This results in areas of low pressure rotating counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern hemisphere, with the opposite being true for areas of high pressure. If the Earth’s rotation were to suddenly reverse itself, these patterns would also be reversed. The westerlies would become easterlies and the northeast trades would blow from the northwest. \n\nChanges in the Earth’s rotation would have an effect on ocean currents, which can influence local climates. The El Niño and La Niña phenomena that affect global climate patterns on a periodic basis. \n\nOne large component of a location’s climate that would not likely be affected would be the effect of seasons, which are more dependent on the tilt of the Earth’s axis than they are on the Earth’s rotation.
48762
They say in New England that if you don't like the weather, wait a minute!  You are right.\n\n  Being along the coast there is often a marked temperature difference between the land and sea and that can fuel weather changes.  Low pressure systems often follow the coast with anti-clockwise rotating storms that bring in stormy weather from the sea to the land, often well inland.  Because the wind comes from the northeast, it can produce the famous (infamous?) northeaster storms bringing much snow in winter and rain at other times.
308423
It all depends upon the layers of temparature in the atmosphere.  If an upper layer where the precipitation originates is below freezing then it can snow even if it is above freezing at ground level.  Reverse those temperatures and you get freezing rain.
749020
Wind is the roughly horizontal movement of air (as opposed to an air current) caused by uneven heating of the Earth's surface. It occurs at all scales, from local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting tens of minutes to global winds resulting from solar heating of the Earth. The two major influences on the atmospheric circulation are the differential heating between the equator and the poles, and the rotation of the planet (Coriolis effect).\n\nGiven a difference in barometric pressure between two air masses, a wind will arise between the two which tends to flow from the area of high pressure to the area of low pressure until the two air masses are at the same pressure, although these flows will be modified by the Coriolis effect in the extratropics.\n\nWinds can be classified either by their scale, the kinds of forces which cause them (according to the atmospheric equations of motion), or the geographic regions in which they exist. There are global winds, such as the wind belts which exist between the atmospheric circulation cells. There are upper-level winds, such as the jet streams. There are synoptic-scale winds that result from pressure differences in surface air masses in the middle latitudes, and there are winds that come about as a consequence of geographic features such as the sea breeze. Mesoscale winds are those which act on a local scale, such as gust fronts. At the smallest scale are the microscale winds which blow on a scale of only tens to hundreds of metres and are essentially unpredictable, such as dust devils and microbursts.\n\nWinds can also shape landforms, via a variety of eolian processes.
51376
It depends on a number of variables. One factor is the temperature difference between two air masses. The warm air will hold more water than cold air, so if a warm front hits a very cold air mass the cold air will cool the warm air and it will become oversaturated with water vapor. The more the warm air is cooled the more rain will fall. \n\nAnother factor is the way the air masses are moving. If a warm front moves over cold air slowly it will form a gradual transition with the cold air remaining near the ground and the warm air climbing gradually over it. This will produce a prolonged period of rain. If a cold front pushes under a warm air mass it may form a much steeper boundary area between the two air masses. This can produce very hard short periods of rain. \n\nHere's a little diagram:\nhttp://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0006324.html
26339
The short answer is that heat rises & cold air falls. As the sun heats the earth & THE EARTH ROTATES, warm air rises & falls as the day passes, creating movement of the air, combined with the evaporation of our seas into steam, the steam rises, just as heat rises, when the steam or heat reaches an elevation that makes the steam cool to a point that it can no longer rise, the steam becomes rain as the water particals bump into each other, eventually becoming too heavy, & they fall again.
639560
The wind is just the observable and measurable manifestation of air molecules being drawn en masse from one place to another by a differential in atmospheric pressure between the two places.  What causes most of these pressure differentiations is (a) earth's rotation creating friction between the lower and upper components of the atmosphere, and (b) temperature gradients in the atmosphere and the oceans caused by the heating action of our star, the Sun.\n\nLet's go fly a kite!
30909
They may calculate the odds of precipitation, how long it will take for the temperature to rise and fall based upon influences and when those influences will occur, how fast storms are travelling, how fast wind speed are, changing Fahrenheit to Celcius and vice versa.
403512
Mostly due to the sun heating the Earth and the ocean, causing convection and ocean currents, which effect the atmosphere and cause wind.\n\nThat's the very short answer; read this for the complete one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind
150643
The forces that the moon produces on the earth are very small. There is a periodic signal in barometric pressure corresponding to the atmospheric tide. However, my understanding is that there is no strong statistical evidence that tidal forcing has any effect on weather. It is possible that there is some subtle effect that might be uncovered, but it will not be easy. Even the effects of variations in the solar constant are not clearly seen in climate data.\n\n-----------\n\nAddendum: one does not need fancy equipment or satellites to measure the solid earth tide. It is a couple of feet, and it can be observed easy with accelerometers, and has been seen for decades.
348314
warm air and cold air combine to make storms... in the winter there is less warm air