Wind trivia

• Wind in Earth is caused by differences in pressure.
• Wind direction is reported by the direction from which it originates.
• Aeolus or Eolus was the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology.
• In the tropics the prevailing winds are warm, dry winds.
• The world’s windiest place is George V in Antarctica, where 200 mph (320 km/h) winds are usual.
• The strongest observed winds on a planet in our solar system occur on Neptune and Saturn.
• The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun.
• The highest wind speed ever measured in a tornado, which is also the highest wind speed ever recorded on Earth, is 301 ± 20 mph (484 ± 32 km/h) in the F5 Bridge Creek-Moore, Oklahoma tornado which killed 36 people.
• Maximum sustained winds in the strongest tropical cyclones (hurricanes) have been estimated at about 195 miles per hour (314 km/h).
• Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, wind mills for mechanical power, wind pumps for pumping water or drainage, or sails to propel ships.
• Wind is a form of solar energy, created by the irregular heating of the Earth's surface.

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Some facts about El Niño

• El Niño is Spanish for "little boy" and refers to the Christ child, because periodic warming in the Pacific near South America is usually noticed around Christmas time.
•  El Niño-Southern Oscillation or ENSO is a quasi-periodic climate pattern that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean on average every 5 years, but over a period which varies from 3 to 7 years.
• ENSO is credited with suppressing hurricanes and made the 2009 hurricane season the least active in 12 years.
• La Niña is the name for the cold phase of ENSO.
• During a time of La Niña, drought plagues the coastal regions of Peru and Chile.
• La Niña occurs roughly half as often as El Niño
• An early recorded mention of the term "El Niño" to refer to climate occurs in 1892, when Captain Camilo Carrillo told the Geographical society congress in Lima that Peruvian sailors named the warm northerly current "El Niño" because it was most noticeable around Christmas.
• Major El Niño events were recorded in the years 1790–93, 1828, 1876–78, 1891, 1925–26, 1972–73, 1982–83, and 1997–98.

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