FROM WHENCE COMETH THE WIND?
Rex Burress
The westerly winds blew most of March and into early May, sending mixed weather across California and on to places eastward. The 2017 wind was blowing clouds across the sky again on June 11th. Who knows where the wind comes from, or where it goes? It blows as if with a mind of its own.
It is explained that wind on Earth is caused by differences in atmospheric pressure, as in the hot equator and the cold poles, or as the “L” and the “H” on the daily weather map, but the wonder is still there, equally as wondrous as water.
Despite the discomforts wind can bring when it goes into extreme modes, on a lesser level the stirring force can create conditions of visible beauty. It's amazing that for something that can move houses and bend trees, it can't really be seen. Only the disturbance the wind causes reveals its presence.
I noticed a hill of wild oats the wind was moving through the other day, and I had to stop and stare at the waving field. The breeze seemed to be playing with the plants like ocean currents play with water and send rhythmical waves rippling toward shore. The swaying of stems in fields of grain is like a poem of life in graceful motion, suggesting the hand gestures of a ballerina.
Although the vastness of outer space makes it seem like a dead -calm, there are powerful winds in our Solar System, especially of gases sent streaming from the sun at about one million mph. If you think that's fast, the wind involved in a Black Hole in space is about 20 million mph it is believed. Even the wind speeds of planet Neptune are up to 1500 mph. Consider that a wind speed of over 200 mph on Earth is considered total destruction as in a “EF5” tornado! An 80 mph head-on auto crash is nearly total destruction ! A snail's pace barely moves the hands on a scale!
In view of these deductions, we can say “it takes a little wind to stir things up!” We know that it takes movement to produce energy, thus there are windmills, wind turbines, and sailboats built to harness energy from the wind. [“...And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying...And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying...And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail shaking...And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking...”]--Masefield
Energy is the name of the end game, and involves some ingenious devices to promote that stuff making things go. It is less poetically romantic to study man-made machines powering society, and the conversions of oil into 'everything under the sun,' but some power is making my computer work, and that is rather magical.
As I process words, I glance out the window and see the breeze turning the blades on my little backyard windmill, and I know the pressure system is at work. Somewhere, that same air movement is aiding the oak trees to spread the pollen to female receptacles, as well as other species dependent on wind-pollination. “Anemophily [Pollen dispersal].” Other plants need the wind to disperse their seeds. “Anemochory [Seed dispersal].” [New words for me!] The wind is sending maple seeds whirling to the ground outside my house. Nature is in the air!
Elsewhere, the wind may be revealing its force. In Death Valley, wind blows large rocks out onto a moistened lake bed, leaving mysterious tracks no one has seen made. Up in the White Mountains, bristlecone pines are being sand-blasted by wind. In cold regions, a 20-mph wind-chill factor can induce frostbite. Wind is the embodiment of good and bad!
“Who has seen the wind?/Neither I nor you./But when the leaves hang trembling,/The wind is passing through./ Who has seen the wind?/ Neither you nor I: / But when the trees bow their heads/ The wind is passing by.” --Christina Rossetti
Wind:”It rips across the dying grass,/With gusty hands that swiftly pass,/To blow its roaring breath on high/And whip the clouds across the sky...”--Dempsey Welch