Thursday, March 13, 2014

Global and Local Winds in Egypt


Egypt's latitude and longitude coordinates extend from around 32 degrees N to 22 degrees N latitude and from 25 degrees E to 35 degrees E longitude, making Egypt located in the Ferrel Cell. Since my country is located in the Ferrel Cell the wind belt that Egypt resides in is the Westerlies, which makes the wind blow from West to East. If you look at a map of Egypt, most of the populated cities are along the coast of the Nile. The Nile is on the right side of Egypt, so as the winds blow from west to east it will pick up much sand and dust and fly it straight into populated cities like Cairo. Plus if this wind blows over extremely hot land, the wind gets hotter and hotter. This does not sound pleasant at all. Thinking about Egypt's climate makes me so thankful that I live in Hawaii. Anyway, enough with the little tangents, lets get back on topic. Egypt is located near a high pressure belt because it lies very close to the boarder of the Hadley Cell and Ferrel Cell. At around 30 degrees N (S) latitude there is a special area called the Horse Latitude. This occurs from subsiding air associated from the Hadley Cell. In this special area you will find most of the land covered in deserts and barely any winds. That is exactly how Egypt's climate is. Egypt is very hot and dry which is a result from this geographic location of the Horse Latitude. Though Egypt is a mostly a vast desert it is bordering two bodies of water. Thanks to differential heating, land cools and heats faster than water, which makes for land and sea breezes.




Egypt does have a large grouping of mountains in the Southern Peninsula. However most of the Country is a dry desert with a lot of moving desert sand and dust. There are different breezes and winds associated with mountains. Five in particular are mountain breeze, valley breeze, Katabatic wind, Chinook Wind and Santa Ana Wind. Egypt does not experience the Katabatic, Chinook or Santa Ana winds because those winds reside in specific locations. On the other hand, Egypt does experience mountain breezes and valley breezes because the wind has to go up or down the mountain depending on where the high and low pressures are. 

3 comments:

  1. Global and local winds in Egypt greatly differ than the winds associated with Greenland. Egypt is located in the Ferrel cell and characterized by a high pressure belt as a result this country is very hot and dry; Greenland on the other hand is located in the Polar cell and is characterized by the subpolar low pressure belt, which makes temperatures subfreezing. However, like Egypt, Greenland also experiences mountain and valley breezes along with Chinook breezes.

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  2. Both France and Egypt are located in the northern Ferrel cell, meaning that they both experience Westerlies. While Egypt is at the mercy of the subtropical highs, subsiding air, and horse latitudes, however, France is much farther to the north, which allows it to avoid every one of those effects. These means that France's climate and weather are overall simpler to describe, with moist warm air blowing in from the west. Both mountain breezes and valley breezes are common between the countries. France will also experience the Foehn winds as moist, warm air hits the windward sides of its mountains and rides down the leeward sides.

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  3. China is also located in the Ferrel cell. However, there are mountain ranges to the West of China. The desert to the west of Egypt creates sandstorm conditions that are not seen in China. The types of winds that China experiences is more variable than the winds in Egypt. China gets mountain, valley, land, and sea breezes. These countries are in the same cell, but there geographic location creates very different weather patterns.

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