Wind at the poles

[webcraft]

Quick Quiz p. 43 Feb YM:

3/ Are the prevailing winds at the pole easterlies or westerlies?

The answer apparently, is easterlies.

I must be missing something here, because I thought if you were standing at the N. pole then all winds would be southerlies, and if you were standing at the S. pole then all winds would be northerlies.

Or am I missing something?

- Nick

 

[tcm]

quite right, webby.

Very cheap staff at YM these days who obviously don't have the benfit of a decent education either from school and/or whilst home which of course involved frequent humilation aged 5-15 being bamboozled by such (admittedly failry useless) conundrums till we got them right. Sigh!

However, i imagine that rather than agree to your elegant solution they will come up with rubbish about it being "near" the poles. If they try any of that, the answer is that NS EW is of course a convenient way for numpty ole sailors to handle two dimensions. Much more correct would be for YM to identify if the winds are R or C (radial or circumferential) i spose?

 

[Colin_S]

Take no notice of TCM - you remember the old addage 'if you can't dazzle 'em with diamonds, baffle 'em with bullsh*t'.

As a YM protege I feel I am suitably near qualified to answer this. If you are standing on the N pole and wet a finger and hold it out and the right side feels colder than the rest then the wind is an easterly. But to be strictly correct you would be standing in the middle of a whirlwind. I suggest lighting a Benson using some of the other fingers that have not yet succumbed to frostbite to check this and, dead on the North Pole the smoke should go straight up. Bit like pulling the plug out of the bath but upside down.

HTH.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Whatever, but at least no local yokel can tell you "It's blowing straight from the north pole"

 

[jimi]

You're totally wrong, they are obviously standing at the Magnetic North Pole and referring to the true wind direction.

 

[longjohnsadler]

Whatever the answer, very handy to know if you were cruising in the area and wanted to anchor, or possibly tie up to the north pole itself.
Probably in anticipation of global warming.

 

[stevebirch2002]

Hi Nick. I know where the wind would be coming from if YOU were standing on either of the poles and that would be downwards with a whiff of methane and scotch!!

 

[Lakesailor]

If the wind was whipping around the North Pole in a clockwise direction as we suppose it should, then it will be coming from the East. And I suppose if it goes anticlockwise at the South Pole it will still Easterly as you're upside down. (all Antipodeans are upside-down)
Course there isn't any wind really. The air is stationary and you are spinning through it.
Doctor Who would know.