Coriolis Effect Explained!

Mr. Weather’s World is a weekly video series bringing you interesting and reliable information about the Earth Sciences, Space Weather, and Climate Change. Tune in each week for exciting new content with host and meteorologist Curt Silverwood (Millersville University Alum).

Filmed with Panasonic Studio Camera, and recorded with an Azden Lav Mic and a Blue Yeti USB Mic
Edited with: Adobe Premiere, After Effects, and Audition.

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Earth’s rotation, uneven heating, and its tilt relative to the sun impacts the movement, or global circulation of air. In addition, weather patterns vary in different latitudes. Objects move at varying speeds at different latitudes causing them to move at a curve as opposed to a straight line from one location to the next, this phenomenon is known as the Coriolis Effect.

If you stood at either of the poles, and moved around a circle with a circumference of 6 feet, you would be traveling 5 hundred thousandths of a mile per hour every 24 hours. At the equator, in the same period of time, to travel the entire circumference of our planet, you would be moving at 1,040 miles per hour.

In perspective, imagine rolling a ball across a rotating merry-go-round to a friend on the other side. The ball will not travel in a straight line, rather, you would see the ball curve off to the side. This is a small scale version of the Coriolis Effect. The Coriolis causes phenomena such as trade winds and ocean currents to curve to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.

Tune in next time as we jump into the Ocean!
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Thanks for watching!